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«^^^                      PRINCETON.  N.  J.                       ^ 

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AGRIPPA; 


OR, 


THE  EVANGELISTS. 


HISTORICAL  POINT  OF  VIEW. 


Leavitt   Hunt. 


1857. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  iu  the  year  1857,  by 

LEAVITT    HUNT, 

Jii  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the 

Southern  District  of  New  York. 


MILLER   &    CURTIS, 

Priuters  and  Stcreotypcrs,  tor.  Centre  &  White,  X.  Y. 
Publishers  and  Importers,  321  Broadway. 


"This  man  might  have  been  set  at  Hbert}^ 
if  he  had  not  appealed  mito  Caasar,"  was  the 
reply  of  King  Agrippa  to  the  defense  of 
Saint  Paul. 

No  brighter  example  of  justice  can  be  found 
than  the  equity  extended  by  this  Pagan  king, 
bearing  up  against  an  exasperated,  intolerant 
people,  whom  policy  would  conciliate,  to  shelter 
Saint  Paul,  oppressed. 

To  his  justice  and  intelligence,  Saint  Paul 
himself  pays  willing  tribute. 

The  name  of  Agrippa,  typical  of  an  unpre- 
judiced mind,  is  given,  therefore,  as  the  title  to 
this  book. 


IV 

We  will  not  discuss  the  numerous  gospels 
which  were  current  for  ages,  nor  the  time  nor 
authorship  of  the  present  canonical  books  of  the 
New  Testament — all  vital  questions,  affecting  its 
authenticity.  The  examination  of  the  Gospels 
recognized  to-da}^  is  suflB.cient,  for  there  are  few 
who  can  even  withstand  the  tradition  of  fifteen 
centuries. 

The  Gospels,  as  a  general  thing,  are  beheved 
in  precisely  the  same  manner  that  the  Parsee, 
Hindoo,  Chinese,  and  Mohammedan  accepts 
the  Avesta,  Yedas,  Kings  and  Koran. 

It  is  easy  to  call  ourselves  by  what  name  we 
please. 

All  holy  books  are,  however,  composed  of  a 
certain  quantity  of  facts  or  ideas. 

If  w^e  accept  these  merely  because  they  are 
contahied  in  this  or  that  book,  our  belief  would 
depend,  almost  invariably,  upon  the  rehgion 
of  that  country  where  Pro^ddence  placed  our 


V 

birth.  It  is  the  detail,  the  component  parts  of 
our  holy  books,  which  we  must  study,  before 
we  can  say  with  truth,  that  we  believe  them. 

Therefore  it  is  that  we  shall  discuss  the  Gos- 
pels exegetically. 

The  Evangelists  endeavored  to  carry  out 
the  Messianical  idea.  This  preconceived  idea 
was  the  cause  of  the  miracles  referrins;  to 
and  performed  by  Christ.  This  was  the  reason 
that  vivid  poetical  descriptions  in  the  Old 
Testament,  glorifying  God,  and  presumed  Mes- 
sianical passages  were  made  to  serve  as  moulds 
for  events  befalling  Christ ;  for  with  the  Evan- 
gelists, Christ  is  the  Lord. 

And  to  prove  this  idea,  prophetical  passages 
are  adduced  disconnectedly,  and  allegory  be- 
comes a  fact. 

In  this  short  work,  every  effort  has  been 
made,  in  as  concise  a  manner  as  possible,  to  set 
forth  the  grreatness  of  Christ,  and  the  hiirh  moral 


VI 


contained  in  the  Gospels  ;  besides  this,  many 
facts  related  are  deduced  from  prototypes  ; 
allegories  quoted  as  facts  are  indicated  ;  pro- 
phecies are  carefully  examined,  and  contradic- 
tions are  exposed. 

It  is  vain  to  pronounce  judgment  upon  a 
mass  of  ideas  before  comprehending  each 
individual  one  ;  but,  should  any  one,  after  such 
study,  have  a  doubt,  we  would  claim  for  rea- 
son tlie  benefit  of  that  doubt. 


G  0  F  T  E  Sr  T  S 


INTRODUCTION. 

PACK 

Of  Ihe  Inspiration  of  the  Evangelists 1 

Source  of  the  Idea  of  a  Messiah tj 

Cause  of  the  easy  Acceptation  of  this  Idea  among  the  Jews     .        .  7 

Gradual  Development  of  the  Idea  of  a  Messiah        ....  8 

Of  the  Messiah  from  David's  Race y 

Injustice  of  the  belief  iu  the  necessity  for  Salvation  of  having  even 

a  knowledge  of  a  Messiah 10 

Of  Religion U 

Of  the  Prophetical  Passages  adduced  by  the  Evangelists  .  .  ]2 
Duration,  Martyrdom,  Testimony,  adduced  as  Proofs  of  the  Divine- 

ness  of  a  Religion  are  inconclusive 13 

CHAPTER    I. 

Genealogy  of  Christ 19 

The  Miraculous  Conception 123 

CHAPTER    II. 

Events  accompanying  the  Birth  and  Infancy  of  Christ. — The  Star  ~7 

The  Reason  Gold  and  Frankincense  were  presented  to  Christ        .  33 

The  Flight  of  the  Holy  Family  into  Egypt 33 

The  Massacre  of  the  Innocents 3() 

Return  of  the  Holy  Family  from  Egypt 38 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

CHAPTER    III. 

Of  John  the  Baptist  foretold  by  Isaiah 41 

John  the  Baptist  foretold  by  the  Prophet  Malachi     ....  43 

Of  John  the  Baptist's  Clothing  and  Food 43 

The  Baptism  of  Christ 44 

Of  Baptism 46 

CHAPTER    IV. 

The  Three  Temptations  of  Christ  by  the  Devil         ....  50 

Second  Temptation 54 

Third  Temptation 55 

The  Casting  of  John  the  Baptist  into  Prison 60 

Christ's  Journey  into  Galilee 61 

CHAPTER    V. 

Christ's  Sermon  on  the  Moimt 64 

CHAPTER    VIII. 

Christ  stilleth  the  Tempest 73 

Christ  driveth  the  Devils  out  of  Gergesenes 75 

CHAPTER    IX. 

St.  Matthew  is  called  to  become  a  Disciple 78 

The  Resuscitation  of  Jairus' Daughter 79 

CHAPTER    X. 

Names  and  Number  of  the  Apostles 80 

Second  Coming  of  Christ 81 

Resurrection  and  Last  Judgment 83 

CHAPTER    XI. 

Mutual  Attestation  of  Christ  and  John  the  Baptist          ...  86 

CHAPTER    XII. 

Christ,  in  performing  Miracles,  desires  not  to  be  known           .        .  SO 


CONTENTS.  IX 

PAGE 

CHAPTER    XIII. 

Christ's  Reason  for  speaking  in  Parables. — St.  Matthew's  Reason        93 

CHAPTER    XYII. 
The  Transfiguraliou 95 

CHAPTER    XXI. 

Christ  enters  Jerusalem  riding  upon  an  Ass 98 

CHAPTER    XXIII. 

Christ's  Prophecy  against  the  Pharisees 101 

CHAPTER    XX  I  A". 

Christ  foretells  the  Destruction  of  the  Temple 103 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 

The  Celebration  of  the  Feast  of  the  Passover ;  or,  the  Last  Supper      10,j 
Denial  of  Christ  by  Peter 107 

CHAPTER    XXVII. 

The  History  of  Judas.— The  Trial  and  Crucifixion  of  Christ.— The 

Inscription,  Two  Thieves,  Eclipse,  Christ's  Exclamation     .        .  1119 

The  Trial  of  Christ 113 

The  Crucifixion  of  Christ 116 

The  Two  Thieves 118 

The  Eclipse 120 

Christ's  Exclamation 1~1 

Events  which  occurred  at  the  Death  of  Christ  ....  122 

Events  which  should  have  occurred  at  the  Coming  of  the  Messiah  124 
Events  prophecied  by  St.  Matthew,  as  accompanying  the  Second 

Coming  of  Christ,  and  the  Time  thereof 125 

CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

The  Burial,  Resurrection,  and  Ascension  of  Christ.— The  Embalm- 
ment of  Christ  126 

The  Gu.ard  of  the  Sepulchre 1"-'' 


X  CONTENTS. 

The  Length  of  Time  Christ  was  in  the  Sepulclire 

The  First  Visit  to  the  Sepulchre 

The  Angels  of  the  Sepulchre 

The  First  Appearance  of  Christ 

Christ's  Meeting  with  his  Disciples 

The  Last  Interview 

The  Ascension      .... 


PAGE 

128 
li.'9 
130 
130 
131 
132 
132 


INTRODUCTIOK 


OF    THE    INSPIRATION    OF    THE    EVANGELISTS. 

The  systems  of  religion  which  have  principally 
aftected  mankind,  have  had  their  rise  in  Asia. 

The  Asiatics  believe  their  holy  writings  to  have 
been  communicated  to  man  in  a  miraculous  manner. 

The  writing  upon  the  two  tables  of  the  testi- 
mony, given  to  Moses,  was  the  writing  of  God. — 
Exod.  32  :  16. 

The  Parsee  believes  the  holy  books  of  the  Avesta 
or  Word  to  have  been  revealed  to  Zoroaster  by 
Ormuzd. — Zend  Avesta,  Tom.  ii.,  p.  1S9. 

It  was  Menu,  the  son  of  Brahma,  who  dictated 
the  civil  and  religious  laws  of  the  Hindoos. — Laws 
of  Menu.  Gaudama  Buddha,  the  founder  of  Bud- 
dhism, was  an  incarnation  of  the  Divinity. 

The    state    religion   of    China,    systematized    by 


Z  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

Confucius,  forms,  in  so  far,  an  exception,  as  it  is 
based  upon  the  virtuous  invariability  of  the  soul, 
and  not  upon  the  miraculous;  but  even  here,  mirac- 
ulous effects  are  deduced  from  this  same  invaria- 
bility. 

With  regard  to  the  Christian  religion,  the  general 
rule  remains  the  same. 

The  Eoman  Catholic  Church  has  always  taught 
the  inspiration  of  the  evangelists,  but  an  extreme 
difference  of  opinion  has,  also,  always  existed  as  to 
the  manner  and  extent  of  this  inspiration. 

One  the  one  hand,  the  early  apologists,  Athenag- 
oras  and  others,  taught  that  the  holy  writers  were 
mere  instruments  of  the  divine  power,  and,  in  many 
instances,  compared  them  to  musical  instruments 
played  upon  by  the  spirit  of  God. — Lcgat.  vii.,  p.  8. 

'"Oeov  Tivsvfia  cos  ooyava  xsxti'rjy.os  ra  rcop  nqoffijiuiv  OTOfiara.'''' 

Opposed  to  these,  the  Montanists  and  other  sect- 
arians believed  the  inspiration  of  the  evangelists  to 
consist  simply  in  an  unconscious,  ecstatic  state  of 
being. 

The  church  disagreed  with  both  of  these  sects, 
and  assumed  the  belief  that  the  evangelists  were 
tilled  with  the  divine  power,  but,  at  the  same  time, 
in  possession  of  their  consciousness,  and  thus  in  no 
wise  resembled  heathen  ascetics. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  3 

So  Saint  Augustin  says: 

"Because  the  Evangelists  were  inspired  men, 
they  have  not  said  all  things,  but  only  that  which 
they  knew  as  men," — Tractatio  in  Johan. 

Did  Saint  John  know,  as  a  man,  tiie  truth  of  the 
first  verse  of  the  Gospel  ascribed  to  him  ? 

"  In  the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word 
was  with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God." 

The  nature  of  this  idea  excludes  the  possibility 
of  its  truth  as  having  been  communicated  to  Saint 
John  by  the  ordinary  inspiration  common  to  man, 
well,  however,  by  a  supernatural  inspiration  ;  but  a 
man  raised  to  a  knowledge  of  the  supernatural  be- 
comes, "  de  facto,"  superhuman.* 

The  decision,  therefore,  of  the  R.  C.  Church 
leaves  the  belief  undetermined  whether  the  Gospel 
be  of  human  or  divine  diction. 

An  inspiration  fully  equal  to  that  of  the  Evange- 
lists is  believed  to  reside  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  sole  possible  heiress  of  that  traditional 
knowledge,  deemed  absolutely  necessary  for  the 
comprehension  of  the  holy  writers,  and  which  sub- 
ordinates the  signification  of  the  Scriptures  to  the 

*  The  contemplation  of  every  object  in  nature  awakens  in  ns 
the  sentiment  of  the  existence  of  a  supreme  being,  and  every 
pulsation  transforms  this  sentiment  into  a  confirmed  belief;  but 
who  pretends  to  have  a  knowledge  of  the  ways  or  history  of  God  ? 


4  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

interpretation  of  the  Church.  Thus  St.  Augustin 
says,  "I  would  not  believe  the  Evangelists,"  "Nisi 
me  commoveret  ecclesiae  catholicae  auctoritas." 

The  Protestants  felt  the  necessity  of  settling, 
definitively,  the  doctrine  of  the  supernatural  inspira- 
tion of  the  holy  writers,  their  belief  being  based 
solely  thereupon. 

The  question  now  arose  whether  this  inspiration 
extended  to  the  very  words  and  syllables  or  only  to 
certain  parts  such  as  the  prophecies  and  doctrinal 
points. 

To  accept  of  a  total  inspiration  would  be  to  deny 
the  existence  of  a  single  error  in  the  scriptures, 
■  which,  to-day,  no  one,  I  believe,  would  have  the 
boldness  to  assert,  but  to  accept  of  a  partial  in- 
spiration would  be  inconsequent ;  besides,  who  is 
to  decide  upon  those  parts  especially  inspired. 

Nevertheless,  certain  men,  having  become  the 
champions  of  a  system,  have  undertaken  to  level 
all  obstacles  of  discordance,  and  to  smooth  down 
all  contradictions. 

Thus  Luther  remarks: 

"  The  Evangelists  were  satisfied  to  show,  in  an 
artless  but  distinct  manner,  that  Christ  descended 
from  Abraham  and  David ;  for  they  considered  the 
promise  of  God  more  than  the  most  exact  genea- 
logical-list." 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  5 

Since  Saint  Matthew  has  not  only  stated  that 
Christ  was  of  the  family  of  David,  but  has  also 
undertaken  to  transmit,  exactly,  the  whole  genea- 
logical-list of  that  family,  we  are  obliged,  in  justice, 
to  accept  of  both  of  these  statements  as  equally 
serious. 

To  accept,  therefore,  of  the  divine  inspiration  of 
the  Evangelists,  and  then  to  choose  certain  pas- 
sages as  particularly  truthful,  is  not  only  incon- 
sistent, but  presumptuous. 

It  was,  probably,  from  a  conviction  of  the  impos- 
sibility of  harmonizing  the  contradictions  of  the 
Evangelists  with  the  doctrine  of  their  infallibility, 
or  supernatural  inspiration,  that  determined  Arch- 
deacon Paley  to  devote,  in  his  work,  entitled, 
"Evidences  of  Christianity,"  a  chapter  of  only 
thirty  sentences  to  what  he  calls  tlie  "Discrepan- 
cies of  the  Gospels."  What  is  more  worthy  of 
remark  is,  that  he  has  devoted  this  entire  chapter 
to  the  exposition  of  certain  discrepancies  between 
Jewish,  Latin,  and  English  historians. 

He  has,  indeed,  ventured  to  quote  a  sentence  from 
St.  Mark,  referring  to  the  appearance  of  Christ  after 
his  resurrection,  but  he  has  not,  on  that  account, 
pointed  out  any  one  of  the  several  discrepancies 
which  are  contained  in  tiiat  theme. 

We  close  here  this  cursory  examination  of  the 


6  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

doctrine  of"  inspiration,  both  supernatural  and  natural 
— two  conflicting  doctrines,  one  of  which  is  allied 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  free  will  of  man,  while  the 
other  enters  naturally  into  the  system  of  belief  of 
those  who  accept  of  the  doctrine  of  predestina- 
tion. 

The  extent  of  the  belief  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
Evangelists  must  be  determined  by  individual  faith 
or  enlightenment. 

SOURCE    OF    THE    IDEA    OF    A    MESSIAH. 

Hope  exists  in  the  first  instinctive  effort  of  man 
for  self-preservation — it  is  the  mover  to  action 
through  life — it  survives  every  other  sentiment — it 
lives  in  the  future  infinite. 

The  Jewish  prophets  possessed,  in  common  with 
all  men,  the  innate  sentiment  of  hope.  To  this  sen- 
timent was  bound,  in  their  minds,  a  strong  conscious- 
ness of  absolute  goodness,  truth,  and  justice — 
abstract  ideas  which  they  would  fain  have  made  one 
with  human  nature — men  made  angels — the  golden 
age  arrive — their  dreams  fulfilled ;  and,  as  the  idea 
of  a  certain  state  of  things  is  naturally  allied  in  the 
imagination  to  a  person  capable  of  realizing  them,  a 
connecting-link — a  being  possessed  of  superhuman 
qualities — is  here  of  necessity ;  but  no  sooner  neces- 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  7 

sary  to  their  mind  tlian  a  Messiah  is  created  in  their 
imagination. 

Thus  the  Messiah  is  the  personification  of  an  idea. 
Nor  can  this  be  denied ;  for  the  Messiah,  among  the 
Jews,  reduced  to  his  just  proportions,  constitutes, 
even  to-day,  but  the  expression  of  tlie  sentiment  of 
hope.* 

This  unintentional  personification  of  an  idea  will 
end  when  man  ceases  to  confound  the  efforts  of  his 
imagination  with  reality. 


CAUSE    OF    THE    EASY    ACCEPTATION    OF    THIS    IDEA    AMONG 
THE    JEWS. 

The  Jews  being,  as  a  nation,  extremely  egotistic,t 
ascribed  to  the  command  of  God  both  the  good 
actions  and  the  atrocities  they  committed  (Numbers 
31 :  2).  They  believed  the  Divinity  to  be  most  par- 
ticularly occupied  with  their  interest,  and  conse- 

*  The  expectation  of  a  Messiah  remains  among  the  Jews 
in  disregard  of  Haggai's  testimony — ch.  2  :  20-24 — which  declares 
Zerubbabel  to  be  the  Saviour. 

Besides,  Jeremiah  30  :  9  and  Ezekiel  34 :  23  prophecy  the  Mes- 
siah in  David  resuscitated.  To  this  may  be  added  that  Zecliariah, 
6  :  9-12,  is  commanded  to  crown  Joshua,  the  son  of  Jose<lcch,  as 
the  Messiah. 

f  Quintillian  calls  them  "  perniciosam  caeteris  gentem." — Ora- 

torice  Institutiones,  Lib.  3,  cap.  7. 
2  ^ 


8  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

quently  accepted,  with  great  facility,  the  idea  of  a 
Messiah,  who  should  so  much  increase  their  wel- 
fare. 

By  taking  their  political  condition  into  consider- 
ation, in  their  appreciation  of  divine  justice,  the 
Jews  arrogantly  supposed  absolute  justice  to  adjust 
itself  to  their  political  acts !  Thus,  by  ascribing, 
indiscriminately,  their  actions  to  a  command  of  God, 
they  accused  the  Divinity  of  mutability  or  injustice  ; 
for  the  immutability  of  Providence  is  itself  the 
normal  or  natural  order  of  things,  which,  in  its  turn, 
constitutes  justice. 

'     GRADUAL    DEVELOPEImENT    OF    THE   IDEA    OP   A    MESSIAH. 

The  idea  of  a  Messiah,  at  first  but  vague  and  un- 
developed, was,  by  degrees,  defined  with  more  pre- 
cision. It  gained  influence  in  critical  moments, 
when  an  occasion  presented  itself  to  give  expression 
to  a  strong  sentiment  of  hope. 

Is  the  nation  threatened  with  an  invasion  (Isaiah 
7),  immediately  the  speedy  coming  of  a  Messiah  is 
foretold,  at  which  event  they  are  to  be  rehabilitated, 
especially  in  their  material  and  political  position. 

Thus  the  Jews  base  their  future  happiness  upon 
an  ideal  external  cause,  rather  than  upon  the  prac 
tice  of  the  sentiment  of  justice  instinctive  to  man, 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  9 

and  even  expressed,  and,  for  their  nation,  set  in  his- 
torical relief  since  ages  by  the  intelligent  experience 
of  some  of  their  forefathers.  For  what  is  more  truly 
divine  than  the  decalogue  ! 

The  still  existing  want  of  this  external  cause — a 
Messiah — through  whose  supernatural  agency  the 
Jew  expects  such  great  spiritual  and  material  ad- 
vantages, explains,  partly,  his  wavering  basis  of 
moral  action,  and,  consequently,  his  little  mainte- 
nance of  dignity. 

OF   THE    MESSIAH    FROM    DAVID'S    RACE. 

The  great  preeminence  of  the  family  of  David 
sufficed  to  designate  it  as  the  most  worthy  for  a 
Messiah  to  proceed  from.  The  same  natural  effect 
of  constituted  preeminence  we  see  continually  re- 
peated among  despotic  nations  whose  political  sa- 
viours are  almost  invariably  expected  to  proceed 
from  great  monarchical  houses. 

This  half  deification  of  certain  families  has  its 
origin  in  a  want  of  manly  feeling  and  individual 
dignity  among  the  mass. 

Finally,  it  was  of  great  importance  to  St.  Mat- 
thew to  draw  Christ's  lineal  descent  from  David,  as 
the  Jews  would  accept  of  a  Messiah  from  that 
source  only ;  but  St.  Matthew's  deduction  of  a  con- 


10  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

elusive  argument  in  favor  of  Christ's  royal  parent- 
age by  ingrafting  him  on  the  most  brilliant  Jewish 
genealogical-tree,  although  most  flattering  to  the 
local  mindedness  of  the  Jews,  yet,  being  unsup- 
ported even  by  his  own  evidence,  its  acceptation  is 
repulsive  to  those  who  seek  the  truth. 


INJUSTICE  OF   THE   BELIEF   IN   THE   NECESSITY  FOR  SALVATION 
OF    HAVING    EVEN    A    KNOWLEDGE    OF    A    MESSIAH. 

It  does  not  belong  to  man  to  dispute  the  justice 
of  God  nor  to  pretend  to  understand  the  wisdom  of 
his  eternal  decrees.  Who  pretends  to  know  why 
the  seasons  roll  in  their  existing  succession  !  What 
pretension,  then,  to  assert  the  favoritism  of  God,  to 
believe  in  the  unequal  repartition  of  the  benefits  of 
Providence. 

Inequality  among  men  arises  from  the  influence 
of  different  external  causes,  and  from  the  motive 
efforts  of  man's  will.  It  is  the  infinite  combination 
of  these  internal  and  external  forces  which  causes 
the  endless  variety  in  the  condition  and  capacity  of 
man ;  the  very  basis  of  this  variety  lies  in  the 
immutability  of  the  laws  of  nature  or  Providence. 
What  presumption,  then,  to  believe  the  predecessors 
of  a  Messiah,  less  blessed  than  those  born  afterwards, 
what  low  egotism  to  believe  those  more  favored  in 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  11 

the  sight  of  God,  who  have  a  knowledge  of  Christ 
than  those  who  are  ignorant  of  him,  such  a  belief 
would  show  a  distrust  in  the  never-ceasing  equal 
care  of  Providence ;  to  believe  some  better  or  worse 
cared  for  is  to  pretend  to  understand  the  wisdom 
of  God — is  to  question  the  justice  of  God. 

OF   RELIGION. 

The  sentiment  of  right  and  wrong  basis  of  all 
moral  action  existed  necessarily  since  the  creation 
of  man,  as  one  of  the  component  faculties  of  his 
spiritual  organization. 

The  practice  of  moral  and  right  principles,  founded 
upon  this  internal  sentiment  of  justice,  suffices  to 
constitute  a  religion  based  upon  truth.  Upon  a  more 
divine  basis  than  this  no  religion  reposes. 

The  test  of  a  good  doctrine  of  a  religion  is  the 
possibility  of  deducing  therefrom  a  principle  of 
moral  action ;  for  a  religion  must  he  based  upon  good 
actions  to  be  useful  to  mankind. 

Moral  action  is  as  essential  to  a  useful  religion  as 
the  vain  assertion  of  a  belief  is  useless. 

"What  doth  it  profit,  my  brethren,  though  a 
man  say  he  hath  faith  and  have  not  works?  Can 
faith  save  him?" — St.  James,  ch.  2,  vs.  14. 

*'  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me  Lord,  Lord, 


12  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but  he  that 
doeth  the  will  of  my  father  which  is  in  heaven." — 
St.  Matthew,  ch.  7,  vs.  21. 

Faith  is  the  deep  conviction  of  the  truth  of  a 
thing  based  upon  sentiment  and  reason. 

The  belief  in  certain  doctrines  and  statements 
constitutes,  indeed,  a  faith  or  local  system  of  reli- 
gion. The  faith  of  mankind,  however,  cannot  be  in- 
closed within  any  formula  of  belief;  for  although 
subjectively  always  the  same  as  corresponding  to 
the  sentiment  of  invariable  truth,  yet  objectively  it 
is  infinite. 


OP     THE    PROPHETICAL     PASSAGES    ADDUCED    BY     THE     EVAN- 
GELISTS. 

Of  the  evangelists,  St.  Matthew  has  taken  the 
most  pains  to  model  fitly  his  statement  of  events 
to  prophetical  passages;  and  sometimes,  still  worse, 
to  make  passages  of  the  prophets  harmonize  with 
his  accounts ;  but  if,  with  the  most  expert  hand,  he 
had  exactly  fitted  the  corresponding  parts,  his  car- 
pentering would  prove  exactly  nothing,  as  all  foun- 
dation of  evidence  is  wanting:  for  what  is  more  vain 
than  the  attempt, to  prove  a  case  of  accomplished 
prophecy,  by  an  adduction  of  the  prophecy  itself  in 
favor  of  one's  own  account;  this  would  necessitate 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  13 

the  admission  of  the   premises,  namely,  that   the 
event  to  be  proved  was  true. 


DURATION,    MARTYRDOM,    TESTIMONY,   ADDUCED   AS   PROOFS  OF 
THE  DIVINENESS  OF  A  RELIGION,  ARE  INCONCLUSIVE. 

How  absurd  the  argument  which  draws  a  proof 
of  the  divine  origin  of  a  religion  from  the  length  of 
time  it  has  been  received  as  true  ;  for  have  not  evil 
doctrines  existed  and  been  accepted  among  all  na- 
tions as  most  holy,  since  long  before  the  Christian 
era?  Who  believes  therefrom,  however,  that  evil 
is  good  ? 

The  number  of  martyrs  sacrificed  to  a  religion  is 
of  no  weight  as  proof  of  the  superhuman  origin  of 
that  religion,  but  rather  in  an  inverse  ratio — for  men 
sacrifice  their  lives  full  as  often  to  superstition  as  to 
truth.  Does  the  martyrdom  of  myriads  of  Hindoos 
prove  their  superstitions  to  be  truths? 

Tradition  is,  at  the  best,  but  a  method  of  ap- 
proach to  the  truth  of  past  events,  but  is  by  no 
means  infallible,  for  the  human  mind  can  err. 

All  the  testimony  of  the  earth  would  not  justify 
a  belief  in  a  wonder  to  which  we  can  see  notliing 
analogous. 

Man  acquires  a  reasonable  conception  of  the 
Divine  Being — supreme  cause  of  all  things — from  a 


14  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

contemplation  of  nature  :  it  is  from  a  contemplation 
of  sensible  effects  that  we  conclude  an  invisible 
cause  to  be  necessary ;  but,  to  pretend  to  under- 
stand this  supernatural  cause,  or  the  ways  and  man- 
ner of  the  Divinity,  would  be  to  pretend  to  be 
capable  of  rendering  the  incomprehensible,  compre- 
hensible. 

It  is  to  nothing  less  than  this,  however,  that  the 
historians  of  the  New  Testament  pretend,  when 
they  attest  the  mortal  possession  of  a  knowledge  of 
the  supernatural  manner  by  which  an  event  was 
caused :  for  example,  St.  Matthew  testifies,  as  to  a 
fact,  that  Joseph  had  a  knowledge  of  the  super- 
natural cause  or  manner  of  the  conception  of  Jesus. 

The  historian,  who  pretends  to  understand  the 
supernatural  manner  of  the  Divinity,  contradicts 
himself  by  attempting  to  invest  his  knowledge  in  an 
historical  form,  as  such  a  supernatural  account 
would  be  incomprehensible  to  man,  or  he  who 
obtained  such  knowledge  would  be,  "  de  facto," 
superhuman. 

It  is  the  belief  in  mystery  which  affects  us,  and 
not  the  attempted  explanation  of  it. 

From  which  do  we  gain  a  deeper  conviction  of 
the  existence  and  greatness  of  God — from  such 
attested  accounts  as  Christ's  having  miraculously 
cleansed  men  possessed  of  the  devil,  and  his  having 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  15 

changed  water  into  wine — or  from  a  personal  con- 
templation of  the  growth  of  plants,  or  the  revolu- 
tions of  the  planets  ? 

The  Evangelists  have  increased  the  previous  exist- 
ing collection  of  miracles — products  of  man's  imag- 
ination— caused  by  an  unseemly  desire  and  accom- 
panying impotence  to  penetrate  into  the  domain  of 
mystery,  but  they  have  thrown  no  new  light  upon 
the  anterior  mundane  notions  of  the  Divinity. 

Still  worse,  they  attest  that  the  laws  of  nature 
were  placed  at  the  disposal  of  different  men  by  the 
exercise  of  their  will,  and  thus,  by  ascribing  divine 
attributes  to  many,  they  no  longer  permit  the  Deity 
to  remain  a  unit. 

From  a  belief  in  all  of  the  miracles  related  by  the 
Evangelists,  it  is  impossible  to  deduce  a  single  law 
of  moral  action — the  vital  part  of  religion — except, 
perhaps,  the  negative  deduction  of  the  bad  effects 
of  such  a  belief. 

Man  derives  less  moral  benefit  from  a  belief  in 
miracles  than  from  a  belief  in  fables — for  fables 
sometimes  have  a  moral. 

If,  in  contradiction  to  our  reasonable  judgment, 
we  should  base  our  belief  upon  testimony  alone,  we 
would  be  forced,  in  consequence,  to  accept  the 
attested  superstition  of  all  nations ;  we  would,  in  a 
word,  possess  a  conventional,  self-annihilating  belief. 


16  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

In  an  appreciation  of  the  value  of  testimony  it  is 
unjust  to  make  an  exception  in  favor  of  the  Evan- 
gelists, for,  by  their  contradictions,  they  themselves 
place  the  judgment  of  the  reader  above  their  testi- 
mony ;  besides,  to  believe  men  of  other  religions 
unendowed  with  the  capacity  of  distinguishing  and 
of  transmitting  truth,  is  to  deny  the  experience  of 
man  and  the  justice  of  God. 

The  practice  of  justice  and  truth  is  as  innate  with 
man  as  his  own  nature,  and  justice  has  been  prac- 
ticed since  the  creation  of  the  human  mind. 

Some  argue  that  Adam  was  not  brought  into  ex- 
istence in  the  same  way  as  other  men  ;  that  there 
exists  an  analogy  between  him  and  Christ,  which 
would  tend  to  prove  the  belief  in  the  miraculous 
conception  of  Christ  by  the  Virgin  to  be  not  unrea- 
sonable. 

This,  however,  is  not  the  case. 

The  creation  of  the  first  of  mankind  is  a  mystery 
which  we  reflect  upon  with  the  same  feelings  as  we 
do  that  of  the  creation  of  the  world  or  the  begin- 
ning of  all  things,  and  which  only  affects  us  because 
it  appears  to  our  minds  to  be  a  necessary  and  mys- 
terious truth  in  the  natural  order  of  things  ;  con- 
trary to  this,  the  supernatural  conception  of  Christ 
by  the  Virgin  Mary  'lies  outside  of  the  natural 
order  of  things. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  17 

To  believe  a  thing  because  it  is  more  incompre- 
hensible than  another  thing  is  absurd ;  because  the 
one  may  be  supernatural  or  wonderful,  the  other 
unnatural  or  miraculous. 

Thus,  we  disbelieve  the  report,  attested  as  true 
and  believed  to-day  by  millions,  that  Buddha  stood 
several  minutes  in  the  air,  or,  again,  that  Moham- 
med (Mahomet)  rode  up  to  the  throne  of  God, 
mounted  on  the  winged  Borak,*  because  such  feats 
would  be  unnatural,  not  because  they  are  wonder- 
ful— for  what  more  wonderful  than  the  revolutions 
of  the  planets  in  space,  or  the  colors  of  a  flower, 
neither  of  which,  however,  are  considered  unnatural ! 

We  are  justified  in  a  belief  in  the  wonderful  to 
the  same  degree  that  we  have  a  reasonable  concep- 
tion of  it ;  this  we  gain  through  the  medium  of  our 
senses  from  a  contemplation  of  nature  ;  we  believe, 
for  instance,  that  an  oak  springs  from  an  acorn  ;  but, 
if  we  consider  upon  the  manner  of  the  growth,  we 
become  engaged  in  the  contemplation  of  a  mystery, 
and,  as  such,  we  can  form  hereupon  no  positive  be- 
lief, except  a  belief  in  mystery  itself,  which  is  alone 
comprehensible  to  God. 

Everything  serves  as  a  medium  of  connection 
with  mystery. 

*  Koran,  chap.  IT. 


IS  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

A  belief  in  the  truth  of  testimony  with  regard  to 
past  events  must  be  subjected  to  our  analogical  rea- 
son ;  thus  we  believe  that  our  fathers  were  conceived 
in  the  same  manner  as  ourselves;  but,  seeing  no- 
thing analogous  in  nature,  we  would  not  be  justified 
in  the  belief  in  the  miraculous  conception  of  Christ, 
nor  in  the  equally  attested  account  of  Balaam's  ass 
being  possessed  of  the  faculty  of  speech. 

It  was  this  blind  belief  in  testimony  that  Christ 
blamed  when  he  accused  the  Pharisees  of  having 
made  the  commandment  of  God  of  none  effect  by 
their  tradition. — St.  Matthew,  15  :  6. 

Our  capacity  has  sufficient  to  cope  with  in  the 
contemplation  of  the  wonders  in  nature  without 
accrediting  unreasonable  explanations  of  them. 

The  conception  of  every  child  is  as  wonderful  as 
the  attested  miraculous  conception  of  Jesus  Christ; 
but  this  is  unnatural,  or  more  reasonably  incredible. 


POSITIVE    CONTRADICTIONS 

BETWEEN    THE    EVANGELISTS. 


CHAPTER!. 

GENEALOGY     OF     CHRIST. 

The  Jews  were  awaiting  a  Messiah  of  the  family 
of  David  ;  it  was  probably  to  satisfy  this  expecta- 
tion that  St.  Matthew  commenced  his  gospel  with 
the  following  enumeration  of  the  descendants  of 
David,  as  a  genealogical  proof  of  Christ's  hereditary 
claim  to  the  office  of  a  Messiah. — St.  Matthew  1 : 
1-17. 


1.  Abraham, 

Solomon, 

Salathial, 

2.  Isaac, 

Roboam, 

Zorobabel, 

3.  Jacob, 

Abia, 

Abiud, 

4.  Judas, 

Asa, 

Eliakim, 

5.  Phares, 

Josaphat, 

Azor, 

6.  Esrom, 

Joram, 

Sadoc, 

7.  Aram, 

Ozlas, 

Achim, 

8.  Aminadab, 

Joatham, 

Eliud, 

9.  Naasoii, 

Achaz, 

Eleazar, 

10.  Salmon, 

Ezekias, 

Matthan, 

11.  Booz, 

Manasses, 

Jacob, 

12.  Obed, 

Amon, 

Joseph, 

13.  Jesse, 

Josias, 

Christ. 

14.  David, 

Jechonias, 

20  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

This  genealogical  list  disagrees  with  equally 
authentic  historical  sources,  also  with  the  corre- 
sponding list  adduced  by  St.  Luke,  besides  which, 
the  Evangelist  most  unhappily  contradicts  himself 
in  the  statement  of  the  number  of  the  members  of 
one  of  his  divisions. 

In  the  first  place,  St.  Matthew,  ch.  1 :  8, 
makes  "  Joram  to  be  the  father  of  Ozias,"  but 
according  to  the  I.  Chronicles,  ch.  3  :  11,  12,  the  de- 
scendants of  Joram  follow  thus:  "Joram,  Ahaziah, 
Joash,  Amaziah,  Azariah*  or  Ozias";  thus  we 
find  that  the  Evangelist  has  omitted  here  the  three 
names  of  Ahaziah,  Joash,  and  Amaziah. 

Again,  upon  comparing  v.  11  with  I.  Chronicles 
15,  16,  we  find  that  between  Josias  and  Jecho- 
nia,  the  name  of  Jehoiakim  has  been  omitted. 

The  probable  reason  of  the  omission  of  these 
numbers  was  to  maintain  equal  divisions  of  fourteen 
members.  Herein  the  Evangelist  may  have  been 
influenced  by  the  prototypes  afforded  him  in  the 
second  chapter  of  Genesis,  where  from  Adam  to 
Noah,  and  from  Noah  to  Abraham,  there  are  respect- 
ively ten  generations,  and  again  from  Abraham  to 
Solomon,  and  from  Solomon  to  Zedekia,  there  are 
respectively  fifteen  generations  mentioned.     From 

*  The  name  of  Azariah  is  the  same  as  Uzziah  or  Greek  Ozias,  as 
stated  distinctly  in  II.  Chronicles,  ch.  26  :  1. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW. 


21 


these  prototypes  St.  Matthew  may  have  deduced 
the  conclusion,  that  the  history  of  the  Jews  devel- 
oped itself  at  equal  periods ;  or,  again,  as  7,  an 
exact  subdivision  of  14,  has  always  been  a  holy 
number  among  the  Jews,  and  as  both  the  number 
14  and  the  name  of  David  are  expressed  by  the 
same  Hebrew  characters,  thus  'iTi=David,  or  nu- 
merically 1^4,  1=6,  1=4,  total  Tii  =  14;  the 
Evangelist  may  have  been  induced  herefrom  to  make 
that  number  enter  an  equal  number  of  times  into 
his  genealogical  list  of  Christ. 

Secondly,  The  great  difference  between  St.  Mat- 
thew's book  of  the  generations  of  Christ,  and  that 
of  the  only  other  Evangelist  who  furnished  one,  may 
be  seen  by  comparing  it  with  St.  Luke  3  :  28-38. 


1.  David, 

2.  Nathan, 

3.  Mattatha, 

4.  Meuaa, 

5.  Melea, 

6.  Eliakim, 

7.  Jouan, 

8.  Joseph, 

9.  Juda, 

10.  Simeou, 

11.  Levi, 

12.  Matthat, 

13.  Jorim, 

14.  Eliezer, 

15.  Jose, 


16.  Er, 

17.  Elmodam, 

18.  Cosam, 

19.  Addi, 

20.  Melchi, 

21.  Neri, 

22  Salatbiel, 

23.  Zorobabel, 

24.  Rhesa, 

25.  Joanna, 

26.  Juda, 

27.  Joseph, 

28.  Semei, 

29.  Mattathias, 

30.  Maath, 


31 .  Nagge, 

32.  Esli, 

33.  Naum, 

34.  Amos, 

35.  Mattathias, 

36.  Joseph, 

37.  Janna, 

38.  Melchi, 

39.  Levi, 

40.  Matthat, 

41.  Heli, 

42.  Joseph, 

43.  Christ. 


22  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

Here  there  are  42  members  mentioned,  commenc- 
ing with  David,  while  St.  Matthew  mentions  only  26. 

Here  Neri  is  the  grandfather  of  Zorobabel  in  the 
stead  of  Jechonia. 

Again,  Jechonia  is  made  to  descend  from  David's 
son  Nathan,  instead  of  Solomon. 

From  Zorobabel  to  Joseph,  the  father  of  Christ, 
St.  Luke  mentions  18  intermediate  members,  while 
St.  Matthew  enumerates  only  9,  and  these  entirely 
different  from  those  of  St.  Luke. 

Finally,  St.  Luke  avers  that  Heli  was  the  grand- 
father of  Christ,  which  St.  Matthew  contradicts  by 
designating  Jacob. 

■  Attempts  have  been  made  to  harmonize  the  differ- 
ences between  these  lists,  by  supposing  one  of  them 
to  be  that  of  Mary,  the  mother  of  Christ ;  but  this 
is  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  evangelistical  state- 
ments, and  is,  consequently,  based  upon  a  worthless 
hypothesis. 

In  the  last  instance,  St.  Matthew  contradicts  his 
own  statement  as  follows  :  v.  17,  "  So  all  the  gene- 
rations from  Abraham  to  David  are  14  generations, 
and  from  David  until  the  carrying  away  into  Babylon 
are  14  generations,  and  from  the  carrying  away 
into  Babylon  until  Christ  are  14  generations." 

That  the  evangelist  has  contracted  his  two  first 
divisions  we  have  already  seen,  the  third  one,  how- 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  23 

ever,  is  wanting  in  expansion,  as  it  contains  only  13 
members. 

St.  John,  whose  point  of  view  differs  from  that 
of  the  other  Evangelists,  gives  no  list  of  Christ's 
ancestors ;  but  St.  Mark  remarks  most  naively  that 
"  Christ  descended  directly  from  God." 

In  a  word,  the  disbelief  in  the  genealogical  lists 
of  Christ  dates  as  far  back  as  St.  Paul,  who 
thus  warns  Timothy  of  them,  I.  Timothy  1  :  4, 
"  Neither  give  heed  to  fables  nor  endless  genealo- 
gies which  minister  questions  rather  than  godly 
edifying  which  is  in  faith." 

THE     MIRACULOUS    CONCEPTION. 

This  paragraph  treats  of  the  second  inconsistent 
subject  already  contained  in  the  first  chapter  of  St. 
Matthew  ;  inconsistent  and  incredible  not  only  be- 
cause it  is  opposed  to  reason,  but  for  being  in  direct 
contradiction  to  the  statements  of  the  Evangelists 
themselves. 

St.  Matt.  1 :  18.  "  Now  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ 
was  on  this  wise:  When  as  his  mother  Mary  was 
espoused  to  Joseph  before  they  came  together,  she 
was  found  with  child  of  the  Holy  Ghost." 

This  assertion  of  St.  Matthew  not  only  taxes  our 
belief  too  much  in  his  unparalleled  minute  historic- 


24  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

al  research,  but  it  is  also  at  variance  with  St. 
Paul's  opinion  of  the  same  event,  expressed  in  I. 
Romans,  1 :  3,  4,  "  Christ  was  made  of  the  seed 
of  David  according  to  the  flesh,  but  was  son  of  God 
according  to  the  Spirit." 

Be  this  as  it  may.  Saint  Matthew — after  having 
traced,  with  seeming  great  exactness,  the  genealogy 
of  Christ  through  numerous  ancestral  members  to 
its  source  in  Abraham,  which  genealogy,  although 
of  recognized  inexactness  from  the  omissions  and 
contradictions  it  contains,  is  nevertheless  published 
as  true,  to  persuade  that  Christ  was  of  the  seed  of 
David — renders  by  this  second  account  his  previous 
•genealogical  list  of  total  unimportance. 

The  great  difficulty  here  consisted  in  deducing 
one  and  the  same  effect  from  two  different  causes ; 
as  true  as  this  is  impossible,  so  is  it  true,  that  Christ 
begot  by  the  Holy  Ghost  did  not  possess  one  drop 
of  the  blood  of  David  in  his  veins. 

It  belonged  to  the  historical  spirit  of  the  Jews  to 
regard  every  event  which  particularly  affected  them 
as  a  prophecied  connecting  link  to  their  previous 
history. 

So,  here,  Saint  Matthew  thinks  to  edify  the  Jews 
by  the  weight  of  an  adduction  of  a  passage  from  the 
prophets,  in  confirmation  of  his  second  deduction  of 
the  origin  of  Christ. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  25 

Ch.  1:  22.  "Now  all  this  was  done,  that  it 
might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  of  the  Lord  by 
the  prophet,  saying, 

V.  23.  "  Behold  a  virgin  shall  be  with  child  and 
shall  bring  forth  a  son,  and  they  shall  call  his  name 
Emmanuel." 

The  passage  of  Isaiah,  quoted  here  isolatedly, 
must  be  considered  in  the  connection  in  which  it 
stands  in  the  writings  of  that  prophet. 

Isaiah,  7  :  1.  "  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  days 
of  Ahaz,  king  of  Judah,  that  Rezin,  king  of  Syria, 
and  Pekah,  king  of  Israel,  went  up  toward  Jerusa- 
lem to  war  against  it. 

V.  10.  "  The  Lord  spake  unto  Ahaz,  saying, 

V.  11.  "Ask  thee  a  sign  of  the  Lord  thy  God  ; 

V.  12.  "  But  Ahaz  said  I  will  not  ask,  neither  will 
I  tempt  the  Lord. 

V.  13.  "  And  he  said.  Hear  ye  now,  O  house  of 
David,  It  is  a  small  thing  for  you  to  weary  men,  but 
will  ye  weary  my  God  also  ? 

V.  14.  "  Therefore  the  Lord  himself  shall  give 
you  a  sign  :  Behold,  a  virgin  shall  conceive,  and  bear 
a  son,  and  shall  call  his  name  Emmanuel. 

V.  15.  "  Butter  and  honey  shall  he  eat,  that  he 
may  know  to  refuse  the  evil,  and  choose  the 
good." 

V.  16.  "  For  before  the  child  shall  know  to  refuse 


26  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

the  evil,  and  choose  the  good,  the  land  that  thou  ab- 
horrest  shall  be  forsaken  of  both  her  kings." 

This  event,  which  should  have  served  King  Ahaz 
as  a  sign  to  designate  the  moment  when  the  two 
kings  his  enemies  should  depart  from  the  territory 
of  Judah,  must  necessarily  have  been  a  contempo- 
raneous event  to  the  life  of  that  king,  and  cannot 
with  any  propriety  be  applied  to  the  long  posterior 
event  of  the  birth  of  Christ.* 

*  The  child  of  which  Isaiah  speaks  in  his  accustomed  pro- 
phetic tone  was  probably  his  own  son,  to  whom  he  thus  refers  in 
the  next  following  chapter. 

Isaiah,  8  :  3.  "  And  I  went  unto  the  prophetess  and  she  con- 
■ceived  and  bare  a  son." 

The  original  text  of  verse  14  would  be  more  correctly  trans- 
lated, if,  instead  of  the  phrase  "  A  virgin  shall  conceive,"  there 
stood  "  A  young  woman  shall  conceive,"  because  the  word  em- 
ployed here  is  n^a^sJ  (almah),  while  the  word  generally  used  to  sig- 
nify a  "  virgin"  is  nb^ina  (betulah). . 

Many  of  the  errors  committed  by  Saint  Matthew,  in  his  fre- 
quent quotations  of  passages  of  the  prophets,  arise  from  an  incon- 
siderate use  of  the  incorrect  Greek  translation  of  the  Septuagint, 
thus  in  the  above  he  quotes  : 

"  And  they  shall  call  his  name  Emmanuel,"  while  in  the  original 
text  it  is  "  the  maiden  who  is  to  call  his  name  Emmanuel." 

As  regards  this  latter  event.  Saint  Matthew  informs  us,  ch.  1  : 
25,  that  Joseph  called  the  first  born  of  Mary,  Jesus. 


CHAPTER    II. 

EVENTS  ACCOMPANYING  THE  BIRTH  AND   INFANCY  OF  CHRIST. 


THE   STAR. 


A  STRONG  predisposition  to  relate  wonderful 
events  is  evident  in  St.  Matthew's  account  in  this 
chapter  of  the  miraculous  circumstances  accompany- 
ing the  birth  of  Christ. 

The  whole  account  stands  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  ancient  astrological  belief,  that  a  star  often 
made  its  first  appearance  at  the  birth  of  a  great  man. 

Saint  Matthew  narrates : 

Ch.  1:1.  "  Now  when  Jesus  was  born  in  Bethle- 
hem of  Judea  in  the  days  of  Herod  the  king,  behold 
there  came  wise  men  from  the  East  to  Jerusalem, 

V.  2.  "  Saying,  where  is  he  that  is  born  king  of 
the  Jews?  for  we  have  seen  his  star  in  the  East, 
and  are  come  to  worship  him." 

The  aim  of  the  Evangelist  is  merely  to  show  that 
the  star  that  appeared  had  reference  to  Christ :  of 
the  possibility  of  deducing  such  a  reference  he  ap- 
pears to  have  had  no  kind  of  doubt. 


28  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

We  must  follow  the  account  attentively,  in  order 
to  gain  as  clear  a  view  as  possible  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  wise  men,  by  an  observation  of  the  stars, 
succeeded  in  deducing  the  birth  of  a  king  of  the 
Jews. 

In  the  first  instance,  the  divine  revelation  is  ex- 
ceedingly vague  and  circumscribed ;  for  tlie  star, 
after  having  merely  indicated  the  event,  disappeared, 
leaving  the  wise  men  totally  ignorant  of  the  man- 
ner and  locality  in  which  to  find  the  new-born  king. 

And  now  completely  abandoned  to  their  own  in- 
stinct, they  are  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  their  na- 
tural faculties ;  and  being  in  possession  of  the  princi- 
pal secret,  namely,  that  a  king  was  born  to  the 
Jewish  people,  they  determined  to  transport  the 
theatre  of  their  investigations  to  Jerusalem,  as  being, 
in  all  probability,  the  most  approximate  place  to  the 
sought-for  locality. 

Upon  the  receipt  of  the  news  all  Jerusalem  is 
dismayed,  the  chief  priests  are  hastily  convoked,  and 
basing  their  decision  upon  a  passage  of  the  prophet 
Micah  they  designate  Bethlehem  as  the  proper  birth- 
place of  the  new-born  king. 

Here  we  must  pause  an  instant  to  consider  the 
fitness  of  the  application  of  this  prophecy. 

The  passage  made  to  refer  to  the  birth-place  of 
Christ   is   as   follows,    Micah  5:2:      "But  thou. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  29 

Bethlehem  Ephrata,  though  thou  be  little  among 
the  thousands  of  Judah,  yet  out  of  thee  shall  he  come 
forth  unto  me  that  is  to  be  ruler  in  Israel." 

This  passage  extracted  from  the  prophet  without 
regard  to  its  connection  with  the  rest  of  the  chapter 
is  here  most  inappropriately  made  use  of  to  desig- 
nate the  birth-place  of  Christ. 

To  prove  the  truth  of  this  assertion  it  is  merely 
necessary  to  replace  it  in  its  original  connection. 

Micah  prophecied  during  king  Hiskia's  reign,  at  a 
time  when  the  position  of  Assyria  towards  the  king- 
doms of  Israel  and  Juda  was  most  menacing. 

Shalmanezer  and  Sennacherib  (II.  Kings,  18)  had 
already  made  great  incursions  against  them  with 
different  success,  but  doing  mucli  injury,  so  that  the 
Jewish  kingdoms  already  showed  sure  signs  of  soon 
falling  a  prey  to  Assyria. 

Then  it  was  that  Micah  prophecied  a  Messiah,  and 
in  speaking  of  him  in  the  same  chapter,  he  con- 
tinues V.  6  :  "  Thus  shall  he  deliver  us  from  the 
Assyrian,  when  he  cometh  within  our  land,  and 
when  he  treadeth  within  our  borders." 

We  conclude  that  the  Messiah,  who  was  to  de- 
liver the  kingdoms  of  Israel  and  Juda  from  the 
attacks  of  the  Assyrian  was  not  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is,  perhaps,  unnecessary  to  add  that 'the  great 
political  ruler  expected  in  the  Messiah  was  not  at 


30  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

all  realized  in  Christ  who  never  was  "  the  ruler  of 
Israel." 

The  wise. men  continue  their  search,  while  St. 
Matthew  soberly  persists  in  attesting  his  belief  in 
astrology,  which  ascribes  to  man  the  supernatural 
power  of  recognizing  the  exact  relation  of  a  star  to 
terrestial  political  events. 

V.  9.  "  And,  lo,  the  star  which  they  saw  in  the 
East  went  before  them  till  it  came  and  stood  over 
where  the  young  child  was." 

This  was,  indeed,  a  favorable  conjuncture  if  the 
star  must  reappear ;  this  seems  superfluous,  however, 
now  that  the  wise  men  had  already  ascertained  in 
Jerusalem  the  desired  information. 

The  following  remarks  though  correct  can  serve 
at  the  most  but  as  a  negative  elucidation  of  this 
miraculous  star. 

Certainly  this  star  which  "  went  before  and  then 
stood  still  over  a  house"  was  not  governed  by  the 
same  laws  as  other  stars,  among  which  the  fixed 
stars  do  not  enjoy  the  same  visible  facility  of  loco- 
motion as  the  so-called  moving  stars. 

Besides,  to  agree  with  St.  Matthew  is  to  recog- 
nize a  great  change  in  the  law  of  optics  since  his 
time,  for  to-day  it  is  impossible  to  recognize  a  par- 
ticular object  like  a  house  as  being  exactly  under  a 
star. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  31 

The  history  of  the  star  and  the  wise  men  is  un- 
known to  the  other  EvangeUst.  St.  Luke,  ch.  2  :  9, 
alone,  narrates  a  succession  of  interesting  events 
very  similar  to  those  which  befell  the  wise  men,  but 
which  he  declares  to  have  happened  to  some  shep- 
herds near  Bethlehem  :  while  watching  their  sheep 
by  night. 

We  conclude  from  the  whole  of  this  story  that 
St.  Matthew,  in  common  with  his  contemporaries, 
possessed  a  firm  belief  in  the  power  of  man  to  draw 
a  horoscope,  which  constitutes  one  of  the  parts  of 
astrology. 

Newton,  supposing  the  science  of  astronomy 
best  calculated  to  unravel  heavenly  arcancc,  under- 
took an  astronomical  explanation  of  the  apoca- 
lypse, his  attempt  herein  was  unsuccessful ;  this, 
however,  in  no  wise  discouraged  a  credulous  sage 
from  applying  astronomy  to  biblical  exegesis, 
namely  in  the  pursuit  of  that  wonderful  star  seen 
by  the  magi  at  the  nativity. 

The  result  of  the  calculation  proved,  at  least  to 
the  mind  of  the  mathematician,  that  the  star  of  the 
wise  man  was  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  comet 
observed  by  Chinese  astronomers  at  about  the  epoch 
of  the  Christian  era. 

The  likelihood  of  the  wise  men  having  been 
Chinese  is  alse  deduced  from  the  account,  ch.  2  : 


32  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

16,  which  allows  nearly  two  years  to  elapse  from 
the  moment  of  the  appearance  of  the  star  to  the 
arrival  of  the  wise  men  in  Jerusalem. 

Nor  are  similar  arguments  unworthy  of  our 
learned  theologians  ;  on  the  contrary,  such  subjects 
of  investigation  far  surpass  in  importance  the 
points  of  discussion  of  some  of  their  spiritual  fore- 
fathers, as  may  be  seen  from  the  following  speci- 
mens ;  thus  a  controversy  was  formerly  sustained. 
"  Whether  Adam  could  possibly  have  had  a  navel." 
"  What  sort  of  ointment  was  used  by  Mary  Magda- 
lene to  anoint  Christ."  "  The  quantity  of  wine 
consumed  at  the  wedding  feast  at  Cana."  "  If  one 
•drop  of  the  blood  of  Christ  sufficed  to  atone  for  the 
sins  of  the  world."  "Whether  the  angels  of  heaven 
dance  minuets  or  waltzes."  "  Whether  they  have 
only  tenor  or  sometimes  bass-voices."  "  The  prob- 
able mean  thermometrical  degree  of  heat  in  hell." 
To  these  may  be  added  the  doctrinal  point  con- 
cerning the  immaculate  conception  of  the  Virgin, 
which  has  lately  been  decided  upon  in  Rome  by 
the  Pope,  to  the  great  edification  of  all  Christen- 
dom.* 

*  St.  Augustia  (De  civitate  Dei,  Lib.  xxi.,  cap.  v.)  ;  Origines 
(In  libris  adversus  Gelsum)  ;  Lactantius  (Divin.  lustitut,  Lib. 
iv.,  cap.  xii.,  pages  246,  247);  and  other  of  the  older  writers  and 
Fathers  of  the  Church  have  endeavored  to  prove  the  immaculate 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  33 

THE     REASON     GOLD    AND    FRANKINCENSE     WERE     PRESENTED 
TO   CHRIST. 

The  events  prophecied  by  the  prophets  to  ac- 
company the  Messiah  were  often  attested  by  the 
Evangelists  as  having  befallen  Christ.  For  instance 
Isaiah  prophecied,  ch.  60  :  6,  "  All  they  from 
Sheba  shall  come,  they  shall  bring  gold  and  in- 
cense ;  and  they  shall  show  forth  the  praises  of  the 
Lord."  Now,  as  with  the  evangelists  the  Lord  is 
synonymous  with  Jesus  Christ,  St.  Luke  2  :  11,  the 
following  statement  is  not  at  all  surprising:  "St. 
Matthew  2:11,  And  when  they  (the  wise  men,  i.  e. 
all  they  from  Sheba !)  had  opened  their  treasures, 
they  presented  unto  him  gifts  of  gold,  and  frankin- 
cense, and  myrrh." 

THE    FLIGHT    OF    THE    HOLY   FAMILY   INTO   EGYPT. 

Ch.  2 :  V.  13.  "  And  when  they,  the  wise  men, 
had  departed,  behold  the  angel  of  the  Lord  appear- 
eth  to  Joseph  in  a  dream,  saying.  Arise  and  take  the 

virginity  of  the  mother  of  Christ,  from  the  example  of  certain 
animals  which  they  believed  were  rendered  fecund  by  the  wind. 

"  Quod  si  auimalia  quaidam  veuto  aut  aura  concipere  solere 
omnibus  notum  est,  cur  quis  quam  mirum  putet  cum  spiritu  Dei 
cui  facile  est  quidquid  velit,  gravatam  esse  Virginem  dicimus." 


34  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

young  child  and  his  mother  and  flee  into  Egypt, 
and  be  thou  there  until  I  bring  thee  word ;  for 
Herod  will  seek  the  young  child  to  destroy  him." 

V.  14.  "  When  he  arose,  he  took  the  young 
child  and  his  mother  by  night,  and  departed  into 
Egypt:" 

V.  15.  "  And  was  there  until  the  death  of  Herod  : 
that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  of  the 
Lord  by  the  prophet,  saying,  '  Out  of  Egijj^t  have  I 
called  my  son.''  " 

This  quotation  is  made  from  Hosea,  ch.  11,  v.  1. 
"  When  Israel  was  a  child,  then  I  loved  him,  and 
called  my  son  out  of  Egypt."  St.  Matthew  has 
v.ery  considerately  omitted  the  first  half  of  this 
sentence,  "When  Israel  was  a  child,"  as  inapplica- 
ble to  Christ,  and  then  with  glowing  eagerness 
quotes  the  last  half,  "  Out  of  Egypt  have  I  called 
my  son,"  as  though  this  formed  in  itself  an  independ- 
ent phrase  referring  to  Christ. 

The  prophet  Hosea,  who  wrote  during  the  reign 
of  Hiskia,  at  a  time  when  the  Jewish  kingdom 
were  menaced  with  a  complete  overthrow  by  the 
Assyrians,  refers  in  the  above  passage  to  the  early 
history  of  the  Israelites,  where  at  first  being  called 
out  of  Egypt  they  seemed  particularly  beloved  of 
God  as  a  contrast  to  their  present  seemingly  aban- 
doned state. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  35 

Saint  Matthew's  application  of  this  dismembered 
sentence  is  absurd,  indeed  the  quotation  of  a  more 
appropriate  passage  would  be  useless  here,  as  the 
event  of  the  flight  itself  is  rendered  impossible  by 
Saint  Luke's  testimony. 

This  Evangelist,  who  knows  nothing  of  Christ's 
journey  into  Egypt,  furnishes  us  with  an  interest- 
ing, but  entirely  different  historical  notice  of  that 
early  period  of  Christ's  life,  as  follows : 

Saint  Luke,  ch.  2  :  21.  "  And  when  eight  days 
were  accomplished  for  the  circumcising  of  the  child, 
his  name  was  called  Jesus." 

V.  22.  "  And  when  the  days  of  her  purification 
according  to  the  law  of  Moses  were  accomplished, 
they  brought  him  to  Jerusalem  to  present  him  to 
the  Lord." 

Vs.  39.  "  And  when  they  had  performed  all 
things  according  to  the  law  of  the  Lord,  they 
returned  into  Galilee  to  their  own  city  Naza- 
reth." 

Regardless  of  the  safety  of  the  child,  if,  indeed, 
as  St.  Matthew  says,  Herod  sought  to  kill  him, 
Jesus  is  here  carried  to  Jerusalem  immediately  after 
the  purification  of  Mary,  which  was  thirty-three 
days  after  the  circumcising  of  her  son  (Leviticus 
12:  4). 

Then  the  Holy  Family  returned  from  JerusaleiD 


36  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

directly  to  their  house  in  Nazareth,  thus  rendering 
their  journey  to  Egypt  an  impossibility. 

THE  MASSACRE  OF  THE  INNOCENTS. 

Ch.  2,  V.  16.  "  Then  Herod,  when  he  saw  that 
he  was  mocked  of  the  wise  men,  was  exceedingly 
wroth,  and  sent  forth  and  slew  all  the  children  that 
were  in  Bethelem,  and  in  all  the  coasts  thereof, 
from  two  years  old  and  under,  according  to  the 
time  which  he  had  diligently  inquired  of  the  wise 
men." 

It  seems  improbable  that  a  Roman  governor 
.should  have  dared  to  sacrifice  so  many  children  to 
his  blind  rage,  when  the  law  offered  the  greatest 
protection  to  the  people,  as  we  see  in  the  case  of 
Saint  Paul,  who,  having  made  an  appeal  to  the  em- 
peror, is  forcibly  sent  to  Rome  to  be  judged. 

It  also  appears  contradictory,  that  no  allusion  is 
made  thereto  by  Saint  Luke ;  for,  although  it  is  cer- 
tain that  there  exists  no  actual  contradiction,  when 
one  author  makes  no  mention  of  an  event  related 
by  another,  yet  in  particular  relations,  such  as 
existed  between  Saint  Matthew  and  Saint  Luke, 
both  undertaking  to  state  the  same  events,  the  case 
is  different,  especially  so,  when  we  consider  the  as- 
sertion made  by  Saint  Luke,  ch.  1  :   3,  "  that  he 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  37 

had  perfect  knowledge  of  all  things  concerning 
Christ  from  the  very  first,"  and  undertakes  to  make 
a  certain  Theophilus  acquainted  with  all  of  those 
things  which  he  himself  believed.  In  this  case, 
Saint  Luke's  negative  testimony  appears  to  possess 
as  much  weight  as  Saint  Matthew's  affirmation. 

Disregarding  these  reasonable  probabilities,  the 
only  advantage  gained  by  this  terrible  massacre  is 
the  assertion  of  the  accomplishment  of  another 
prophecy,  thus  v.  17.  "  Then  was  fulfilled  that 
which  was  spoken  by  Jeremy  the  prophet,  saying  : 
V.  IS  :  "In  Rama  was  there  a  voice  heard,  lament- 
ation, and  weeping,  and  great  mourning;  Rachel 
weeping  for  her  children,  and  would  not  be  com- 
forted because  they  are  not." 

If  it  depended  only  on  the  evidence  of  the  mis- 
application of  this  passage  of  the  prophet,  to  prove 
the  falsity  of  the  evangelical  statement,  history 
might  be  easily  cleansed  of  this  superfluity.  The 
passage  adduced  is  taken  from  Jeremiah  31  :  15. 
"  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  a  voice  was  heard  in'Ramah, 
lamentation  and  bitter  weeping.  Rachel  weeping 
for  her  children  ;  refused  to  be  comforted,  because 
they  were  not."  This  poetical  sublime  passage 
refers  to  the  captives  led  away  to  Babylon  ;  their 
way  passed  through  Rama,  a  town  situated  in  the 
territory  belonging  to  the  race  of  Benjamin,   the 


38  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

mother  of  which  race  was  Rachel ;  for  which  reason 
she  is  here  poetically  made  to  lament  them  as  her 
own  children. 

That  the  prophet  Jeremiah  was  referring  to  the 
captive  Israelites  is  again  fully  demonstrated  in  the 
next  following :  verse  16  :  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord, 
Refrain  thy  voice  from  weeping,  and  thine  eyes  from 
tears,  and  they  shall  come  hack  again  from  the  land 
of  the  enemy." 

Does  this  refer  to  the  captives  led  away  to  Baby- 
lon, or  are  the  murdered  innocents  to  come  back 
again  from  the  land  of  the  enemy  ? 

The  story  of  the  massacre  of  the  innocents  is  bet- 
ter understood,  when  we  consider  that  a  similar 
slaughter  was  commanded  by  the  Pharaoh  of  Egypt, 
in  the  time  of  Moses,  between  whom  and  Elijah  and 
the  Messiah  a  great  analogy  was  expected  to  exist. 

RETURN    OF    THE    HOLY     FAMILY    FROM    EGYPT. 

When  Herod  was  dead,  Joseph  took  Mary  and 
Jesus,  and  returned  into  the  land  of  Israel. 

V.  22.  "  But  when  he  heard  that  Archelaeus  did 
reign  in  Judea,  in  the  room  of  his  father  Herod,  he 
was  afraid  to  go  thither ;  notwithstanding,  being 
warned  of  God  in  a  dream,  he  turned  aside  into  the 
parts  of  Galilee." 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  39 

V.  23.  "  And  he  came  and  dwelt  in  a  city  called 
Nazareth,  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was 
spoken  by  the  prophets  :  He  shall  be  called  a  Naza- 
re?ie." 

Here  Joseph,  influenced  by  a  dream,  turns  aside 
to  dwell  in  Nazareth,  merely  to  fulfill  a  prophecy. 

Contradictorily  to  this,  St.  Luke,  who,  as  we 
have  seen,  has  no  knowledge  of  the  journey  to 
Egypt,  informs  us  that  Joseph  and  family,  in  going 
to  Nazareth,  were  returning  to  their  own  city. 

Certainly,  if  St.  Luke's  account  be  credible, 
Joseph  possessed  sufficient  natural  instinct  to  re- 
turn home,  thus  fulfilling  St.  Matthew's  pro- 
phecy without  the  necessity  of  a  supernatural 
intimation. 

The  term  "  St.  Matthew's  prophecy"  is  applied 
here  to  the  passage,  "  He  shall  he  called  a  Nazarene,^' 
because  no  similar  passage  exists  in  the  prophetical 
writings.  The  nearest  approximation  that  can  be 
made  to  the  above  phrase,  is  produced  by  torturing 
the  original  sense  of  a  sentence,  and  by  making  a 
play  of  words. 

Thus  it  is  supposed  that  the  passage  to  which 
St.  Matthew  intended  to  refer  is  Isaiah,  ch.  11,  1  : 
"And  there  shall  come  forth  a  rod  out  of  the 
stem  of  Jesse,  and  a  branch  shall  grow  out  of  his 
roots." 


40  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

A  general  reader  would  be  at  a  loss  here  to  recog- 
nize the  analogy  between  this  passage  and  Saint 
Matthew's  quotation  ;  "  He  shall  be  called  a  Naza- 
rene."  However,  from  a  contemplation  of  the 
changes  effected,  this  metamorphosis  becomes  quite 
,  recognizable. 

Firstly,  t^?.  nezer  in  Hebrew  signifies  both  a 
Nazarene  and  a  branch  ;  by  accepting  the  first  sig- 
nification, one  can  translate,  "  And  a  Nazarene  shall 
grow  out  of  his  roots."  And  now  by  an  effort  of 
the  imagination,  this  sentence  can  be  successively 
construed,  "  he  shall  be  called  a  Nazarene,"  or  still 
better,  '•  The  Messiah,  or  Jesus  Christ,  shall  be 
■called  a  Nazarene." 

This  extraordinarily  broad  interpretation  demon- 
strates the  great  facility  possessed  by  the  Evangelists 
in  transforming  a  passage  of  the  prophets  into  a 
prophecy  of  the  events  he  himself  relates. 

From  all  of  the  above  accounts  we  conclude  that 
the  Evangelists  possessed,  at  the  best,  but  a  slight 
cognizance  of  the  events  affecting  the  infancy  of 
Christ,  or  otherwise  have  conspired  to  transmit  them 
so  discordantly  that  their  entire  credence  is  unau- 
thorized. 


CHAPTER    III. 

OF   JOHN    THE    BAPTIST    FORETOLD    BY    ISAIAH. 

V.  I.  "  In  those  days  came  John  the  Baptist, 
preaching  in  the  wilderness  of  Judea, 

V.  2.  "  And  saying,  Repent  ye  :  for  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  at  hand. 

V.  3.  "  For  this  is  he  that  was  spoken  of  by  the 
prophet  Esaias,  saying.  The  voice  of  one  crying  in 
the  wilderness,  Prepare  ye  the  way  of  the  Lord, 
make  his  paths  straight." 

In  the  original  text  in  Isaiah  ch.  40  :  3,  from  which 
this  passage  is  quoted  the  sentence  stands  thus  : 
'inia  a  Klip  bip  (kol  kora  ba  midbar),  "a  voice  calls 
in  the  wilderness." 

Already  the  Septuagint  wrongly  connected  the 
words  "'  '^li  E^wo  (in  the  desert)  with  ff^'^)  iSowvros 
(the  voice  of  one  crying),  instead  of  the  verb  homuaaTs 
(prepare). 

The  translation  of  Isaiah  40  :  3  should  be  read 
thus  :  "  A  voice  calls  ;  in  the  wilderness,  Prepare  ye 


42  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

the  way  of  the  Lord  ;  make  straight  in  the  desert  a 
highway  for  our  God." 

The  same  expression  is  repeated  in  verse  sixth  : 
"A  voice  said,  Cry;  and  he  said  what  shall  I 
cry." 

The  voice  in  both  cases  is  that  of  the  prophet, 
but  is  referred  to  objectively  here  as  the  inner  voice, 
or  voice  of  God. 

The  passage  quoted  forms  a  part  of  a  consoling 
discourse  to  the  Jews  at  the  end  of  their  exile,  and 
Isaiah  here  refers  to  the  return  of  the  God  of  the 
Jewish  theocracy  by  the  way  of  the  desert. 

The  English  translators  studiously  render  the  orig- 
inal passage  equal  to  St.  Matthew's  quotation,  as 
follows : 

"  The  voice  of  him  that  crieth  in  the  wilderness." 

But  in  V.  6  of  the  same  chapter,  being  no  longer 
indirectly  obliged  to  recognize  a  prophetical  passage, 
they  translate  very  correctly  :  v.  6.  "  A  voice  said," 
etc. 

One  more  effort  and  this  passage  can  be  made  to 
refer  directly  to  John  the  Baptist,  and  this  effort  is 
made  by  Martin  Luther  who  translates, 

"  Es  ist  die  Stimme  eines  Predigers." 
(It  is  the  voice  of  a  preacher.) 

Harmonists  would  consider  this  to  be  a  translation 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  43 

made  in  the  proper  spirit,  but  we  shall  leave  it  with- 
out remark. 


JOHN    THE    BAPTIST    FORETOLD    BY    THE    PROPHET    MALACHI. 

The  Jews  were  expecting  a  preacher  of  repent- 
ance to  precede  the  coming  of  their  Messiah  :  this 
preacher  would  be  Elijah  resuscitated,  as  taught  by 
the  prophet  Malachi,  4:5:"  Behold  I  will  send  you 
Elijah  the  prophet  before  the  coming  of  the  great 
and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord." 

So  John  the  Baptist,  like  Elijah,  taught  the  doc- 
trine of  repentance;  and  as  Elijah  by  Jesabel  (I. 
Kings  19  :  2),  so  John  is  pursued  by  Herodias. 

The  only  obstacle  to  the  acceptation  of  the  ac- 
complishment of  this  prophecy  is  the  simple  fact 
that  John  the  Baptist  was  not  the  incarnate  Elijah. 

OF   JOHN    THE    BAPTIST'S    CLOTHING    AND    FOOD. 

John  must  necessarily  be  made  to  wear  a  camel's 
hair  dress,  because  this  was  the  ordinary  costume 
of  the  prophets  (II.  Kings  1 :  S  ;  Zach.  13:4). 

He  ate  wild  honey,  because  honey  was  believed 
to  render  the  sight  more  clear,  and  was  considered 
by  antiquity  as  a  proper  symbol  of  foresight,  or 
divination  and  eloquence. 


44  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

So  the  Prophetess  of  Delphi  was  surnamed  "the 
Bee."  To  the  Hebrew,  it  denoted  "  clever  speech" 
— Proverbs  5  :  3 — and  was  exceptionally  considered 
a  clear  insect.     Levit.  11:2. 

The  locust  was  the  symbol  of  a  divine  doctrine  ; 
thus,  the  Hindoo  believes  that  the  god  Shiva,  in  the 
form  of  a  locust,  spoke  the  creating  word.  Also  the 
Latin  noun  "  locusta"  is  derived  from  "  loqui,"  to 
speak. 

THE    BAPTISM    OP    CHRIST. 

V.  16.  "  And  Jesus,  when  he  was  baptized,  went 
up  straightway  out  of  the  water :  and,  lo,  the 
heavens  were  opened  unto  him,  and  he  saw  the 
Spirit  of  God  descending  like  a  dove,  and  lighting 
upon  him." 

V.  17.  "  And,  lo,  a  voice  from  heaven,  saying, 
This  is  my  beloved  son  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 

This  is  about  synonymous  with  St.  Mark  1:  11 : 
"Thou  art  my  beloved  son  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased;"  and  with  St.  Luke  3:  22 :  "  Thou  art  my 
beloved  son,  in  thee  I  am  well  pleased ;"  but  accord- 
ding  to  St.  John,  the  voice  said,  ch.  1 :  33  :  "Upon 
whom  thou  shalt  see  the  spirit  descending  and  re- 
maining upon  him  the  same  is  he  which  baptizeth 
with  the  Holy  Ghost." 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  45 

These  different  accounts  leave  a  strange  effect 
upon  the  mind. 

The  Evangelists  make  voices  talk  from  the  clouds 
in  such  a  familiar  manner,  and  take  so  little  care  to 
translate  the  conversation  either  correctly  or  en- 
tirely. 

Perhaps  the  heavenly  voice. heard  by  John  the 
Baptist  was  that  of  his  conscience,  which  is  the 
most  divine  of  any  voice  comprehended  by  mortals. 
St.  Luke,  who,  in  treating  the  miraculous,  rarely 
fails  to  furnish  a  most  abundant  testimony,  expresses 
his  zeal,  on  this  occasion,  by  bestowing  a  body  on 
what  is  used  by  the  other  Evangelists  as  a  meta- 
phor of  innocence,  truth,  and  purity  :  thus— St. 
Luke,  3  :  22— "  And  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  in 
a  hodilij  shape,  like  a  dove,  upon  him  * 

*  It  is  narrated  in  Gen.  1  :  2,  that  "  The  Spirit  of  God 
moved  upon  the  face  of  the"  waters  ;"  and  in  speaking  of  this,  the 
Talmud  adds,  "  like  unto  a  dove." 

Again,  as  a  dove  with  an  olive  branch  appeared  unto  Noah 
after  the  deluge,  as  a  sign  of  the  accomplishment  of  the  purifica- 
tion of  the  earth,  and  of  the  pacification  of  nature  ;  so  at  the  bap- 
tism, symbolical  of  spiritual  purification  or  regeneration,  a  dove 
must  appear.  Symbol  of  the  being  engendered  of  humidity,  doves 
drew  the  chariot  "of  the  goddess  of  love,  born  of  the  sea.  The 
noun  "  dove,"  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin,  is  derived  from  verbs 
which  signify  to  engender,  to  sail,  to  swim.  Lat.,  columba,  from 
^olfi^aco,  io  swim;  Greek,  TriAcm,  from  nUoj,  io  sail;  Hebrew. 
nsi^    (ionah)   from  nsy   to  engender.    We  may  add   that  the 


46  THE    EVANGELISTS. 


OF   BAPTISM. 


The  baptism  conferred  by  John  the  Baptist  was 
bound  together  with  a  repentance  of  past  sins,  and 
the  intention  to  lead  a  more  pure  and  moral  life — 
and  was  it  not  received  as  such  by  Christ? 

The  belief  that  baptism  is  of  primary  importance, 
and  absolutely  necessary  for  sure  happiness  here  or 
hereafter,  is  based  upon  chapter  16  of  St.  Mark. 

V.  16.  "He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized  shall 
be  saved ;  but  he  that  believeth  hot,  shall  be 
damned." 

If  Christ  had  intended  to  confer  the  idea  of  the 
.  absolute  necessity  of  baptism,  he  would  certainly 
have  stated  distinctly  that  "  he  that  is  not  baptized 
shall  be  damned." 

But  this  is  contrary  to  the  whole  spirit  of  Christ's 
doctrine.  Christ  never  baptized.  Our  happiness, 
here  or  hereafter,  in  no  wise  depends  upon  such 
external  action.  Belief  is  what  Christ  taught ;  faith 
in  his  doctrine  and  moral  teachings,  which  judged 
man  no  longer  from  his  actions  alone,  but  placed 
the  tribunal  of  that  judgment  in  his  conscience. 

noun  "  knee"  is  derived  from  the  same  root  as  the  verb  "  to  en- 
gender." Thus  we  have  French,  genou ;  Latin,  genu ;  Greek, 
yovi] ;  Hebrew,  n:ir,  all  of  which  are  analagous  to  the  Sanscrit 
(youi) — partes  mulieris  secretae. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  47 

Matth.  5:  3.  "Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit,  for 
theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

St.  Matthew  5:8.  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart,  for  they  shall  see  God." 

V.  9.  "  Blessed  are  the  peace-makers,  for  they 
shall  be  called  the  children  of  God." 

V.  10.  "Blessed  are  they  which  are  persecuted 
for  righteousness'  sake,  for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven." 

There  is  no  clause  here  stipulating  that  the  pure 
m  spirit  and  the  pure  in  heart,  in  order  to  be  saved, 
must  first  be  baptized.  Baptism  was  the  ceremony 
employed  by  the  apostles  upon  the  reception  of  a 
new  member  or  follower  of  Christ,  and  was  the 
symbol  of  a  spiritual  purification  in  so  far  as  was 
caused  by  a  sincere  repentance  of  past  sins,  and  a 
pure  intent  for  the  future. 

The  term.  In  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  signifies  to  be  in  duty 
bound  to  recognize  in  God  the  kind  Father  of  man- 
kind ;  Christ,  as  the  brother  of  all  men  (St.  Matt. 
12  :  50),  and  the  Holy  Ghost  or  Holy  Spirit  to  be 
that  higher  part  of  man's  nature  through  which  he 
feels  persuaded  of  his  intimate  connection  with  God. 
But  soon  the  ordinary  expressions  employed  in 
baptism  were  converted  into  a  miraculous  magic 
formula. 


48  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

And  now  arose  the  impious  and  bigoted  belief 
that  the  millions  of  unbaptized  would  suffer  eternal 
damnation.  This  is  supposing  them  to  have  been 
created  by  the  all-just  God  merely  to  serve  as  food 
for  the  flames  of  hell. 

This  doctrine,  consequently  developed,  has  led  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  since  St.  Augustine's  time, 
to  baptize  even  unborn  babes  ! 

Most  nations  of  antiquity  believed  that  a  lustra- 
tion of  the  body  caused  or  was  the  symbol  of  a  cor- 
responding spiritual  purification. 

The  holy  Brahmin  has  always  practiced  the  cere- 
mony of  sprinkling  water  on  his  head  and  upon 
the  earth  to  drive  off  the  evil  spirits.  Then  he 
prays  thus :  "  As  the  bather  becomes  clean  from  all 
dirt,  so  may  this  water  cleanse  me.  0,  water!  thou 
art  an  immortal  fluid." 

The  Egyptian  believed  that  the  water  of  the  Nile 
possessed  expiatory  powers,  and  holy  water  was  to 
be  found  in  all  their  temples  (Juvenal  6  :  3S2). 
The  same  was  believed,  with  regard  to  their  holy 
water,  by  the  Parsee  and  the  Persian. 

Of  the  power  of  the  holy  waters  of  the  Ganges, 
every  one  is  familiar. 

Baptism  was  the  symbol  of  regeneration.  Juno 
bathed  in  the  Parthenion  well  and  became  again  a 
virgin. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  49 

The  Jews  had  a  holy  water  which  served  as 
<' purification  for  sin"  (Numb.  19:  9).  According 
to  the  Tahiiud,  "  If  a  heathen  woman  received  into 
Judaism  were  with  child,  the  baptism  of  the  mother 
sufficed  for  the  child"  (Jebamoth,  fol.  78a). 

To-day,  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  every 
child  baptized  is  first  exorcised  by  the  priest,  who 
breathes  on  him  three  times  :  then  the  holy  salt 
used  on  the  occasion  is  purified,  by  exorcism,  from 
the  malignant  influences  of  the  devil,  and  it  is  again 
by  exorcism  that  Satan  is  charged  never  to  violate 
the  sacred  sign  of  the  cross,  impressed  on  the  fore- 
head of  the  child. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    THREE    TEMPTATIONS   OF    CHRIST    BY    THE    DEVIL. 

Christ  is  here  made  to  undergo  three  successive 
uncouth  temptations. 

There  is  made  to  occur  nothing  more  or  less  than 
a  combat  "in  persona"  between  Satan — evil  per- 
sonified— and  Christ,  the  Son  of  Grod — or  absolute 
good.  Yet  since  ages  the  superiority  of  good  over 
evil  had  been  established — according  to  history  ever 
since  St.  Michael's  time.  This  is  the  renewal  of 
the  old  combat  between  the  good  and  evil  spirits — 
the  personified  combat  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman  of 
the  Persians,  of  Vischnou  and  Schiva  of  the  Hindoos. 

The  preliminaries  to  the  first  temptation  are  nar- 
rated as  follows : 

V.  1.  "  Then  was  Jesus  led  up  of  the  Spirit  into 
the  wilderness  to  be  tempted  by  the  devil. 

V.  2.  "  And  when  he  had  fasted  forty  days  and 
forty  nights,  he  was  afterward  an  hungered." 

Christ  has  just  been  represented  as  a  being  "full 
of  a  Godlike  spirit,"  which  he  had  received  at  his 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  51 

baptism.  Again,  St.  Luke  4:1:  "  He  is  full  of  the 
Holy  Ghost."  Besides,  St.  Matt.  4:6:  "He  is  the 
Son  of  God."  As  such,  and  shielded  by  such  force, 
is  it  not  presumptuous  to  affirm  beforehand  that  all 
the  attacks  of  the  devil  will  be  received  with  unim- 
pressionable firmness  ? 

That  it  is  immoral  to  seek  temptation,  is  a  princi- 
ple universally  recognized  among  Christians,  in  their 
prayer  "  lead  us  not  into  temptation."  Thus  Christ 
could  impossibly  have  sought  this  temptation  volun- 
tarily, and,  consequently,  the  Spirit  which  led  him 
to  be  tempted  was  a  superior  power,  which  reduced 
him  to  act  the  r61e  of  an  involuntary  agent. 

Either  by  chance,  or  purposely,  to  increase  the 
merit  of  Christ,  he  is  stated,  immediately  previous 
to  his  temptation,  to  have  fasted  forty  days  and 
forty  nights,  in  which  state,  if,  indeed,  it  were  pos- 
sible, he  must  succumb;  and  it  is  naively  added, 
that  "  afterwards  he  was  much  an  hungered." 

If  Jesus  was  merely  a  man  he  would  have  been 
more  than  an  hungered ;  if  more  than  a  man  there 
was  no  need  of  his  being  made  to  hunger. 

A  striking  prototype  of  this  long  fast  happened 
while  Moses  was  on  Mount  Sinai : 

Exodus  34:  28.  "And  he  was  there  with  the 
Lord  forty  days  and  forty  nights ;  he  did  neither  eat 
bread  nor  drink  water." 


52  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

Again : 

I.  Kings  19  :  8.  "  And  he  (Elijah)  arose,  and  did  eat 
and  drink,  and  went  on  the  strength  of  that  meat 
forty  days  and  forty  nights  unto  Horeb  the  mount 
of  God." 

Forty  was  a  penance  number  among  the  Jews  ; 
so,  at  the  deluge,  it  rained  forty  days  and  forty 
nights. 

After  the  spies  had  returned  from  their  forty  days' 
mission,  the  Israelites  were  condemned,  for  their 
unbelief,  to  remain  forty  years  in  the  desert.  As  a 
punishment,  they  remained  forty  years  under  the 
yoke  of  the  Philistines  (Judges  13  :  1).  In  forty 
days  Nineveh  would  be  destroyed  (Jonah  3:4);  and 
the  land  of  the  Egyptians  he  laid  waste  during 
forty  years.  Eli  was  judge,  and  Saul,  David,  and 
Solomon  reigned  forty  years  each,  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 
Here  commences  the  account  of  the  first  tempta- 
tion. 

V.  3.  "And  when  the  tempter  came  to  him,  he 
he  said,  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  Grod,  command  that 
these  stones  be  made  bread. 

V.  4.  "  But  he  answered  and  said.  It  is  written, 
Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by  every 
word  that  proc^edeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  Grod." 

Thus,  in  his  first  temptation,  Satan  is  repulsed  by 
a  quotation  of  part  of  the  3d  verse  of  the  8th  chapter 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  53 

of  Deuteronomy,  where,  in  speaking  of  God's  treat- 
ment of  the  Israelites,  Moses  says  : 

V.  3.  "  And  he  humbled  thee,  and  suffered  thee 
to  hunger,  and  fed  thee  with  manna,  which  thou 
knewest  not,  neither  did  thy  fathers  know  ;  that  he 
might  make  thee  know  that  man  doth  not  live  by 
bread  only,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out 
of  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  doth  man  live." 

If  we  accept  this  account  literally,  we  ask  what 
Satan's  object  was,  and  what  moral  or  important 
conclusion  we  can  deduce  herefrom.  Did  Satan 
wish  Christ  to  acknowledge  to  him  that  he  was 
really  the  Son  of  God  ?  But  Satan's  question,  v.  3, 
"  If  thou  be  the  Son  of  God,"  and  his  final  obeyal 
to  a  simple  command,  without  Christ's  having  per- 
formed a  single  miracle  demanded  of  him,  prove 
conclusively  that  Satan  knew  Christ  from  the  be- 
ginning. 

Again,  that  Christ  should  have  allowed  himself  to 
be  thus  tempted  is  surprising ;  for  he  must  have 
recognized  Satan  from  the  beginning.  "  He  who 
knew  man's  thoughts"  (St.  Mat.  12  :  25)  must  have 
recognized  the  devil. 

Between  the  first  question  and  reply  there  is  only 
a  verbal  accommodation. 

As,  from  a  literal  acceptation  of  this  account,  the 
question   asked   by  Satan   was  virtually  answered 


54  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

beforehand,  and  is  substantially  without  an  aim, 
this  account  can  only  be  considered  as  a  curious 
combination  of  quotations  pleasing  to  the  Jewish 
mind.  The  manner  of  the  whole  combat  between 
Satan  and  Christ,  carried  on  by  reciprocal  quota- 
tions from  the  Old  Testament,  was  by  no  means 
original  with  St.  Matthew,  as  similar  combats  are 
narrated  in  the  Talmud,  as  for  instance,  between 
Satan  and  Abraham  (Sanhedrim,  fol.  89,  col.  2). 

SECOND   TEMPTATION. 

In  his  second  attack,  Satan  appears  at  first  to 
have  the  advantage,  when  he  seizes  Christ,  and 
supernaturally  transporting  him  through  the  air, 
he  places  him  on  the  top  of  a  pinnacle  ! 

V.  5.  "  Then  the  devil  taketh  him  up  into  the 
holy  city,  and  setteth  him  on  a  pinnacle  of  the 
temple. 

V.  6  :  "  And  saith  unto  him,  If  thou  be  the  son 
of  Grod  cast  thyself  down  ;  for  it  is  written.  He 
shall  give  his  angels  charge  concerning  thee  ;  and 
in  their  hands  they  shall  bear  thee  up,  lest  at 
any  time  thou  dash  thy  foot  against  a  stone. 

V.  7.  "  Jesus  said  unto  him,  it  is  written  again. 
Thou  shalt  not  tempt  the  Lord  thy  God." 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  Satan's  quotation 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  55 

from  Psalm  91  :  11,  12  refers  to  Christ  aloiie  ;  for 
God  made  no  such  promise  to  him,  even  the  Eng- 
lish translators  of  the  Bible  recognize  that  this 
Psalm  refers  to  "  the  state  of  the  godly." 

The  second  answer  of  Christ  is  quoted  from  a 
chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  which  treats  of  the  duty 
of  the  Israelites  toward  Jehovah.  Thus  Deut.  6 : 
16,  "  Ye  (sons  of  Israel)  shall  not  tempt  the  Lord 
your  God,  as  ye  tempted  him  in  Massah." 

The  latter  part  of  the  phrase  was  very  properly 
omitted  in  the  quotation,  as  inappropriate. 

THIRD    TEMPTATION. 

V.  S.  "  Again  the  devil  taketh  him  up  into  an 
exceeding  high  mountain,  and  showeth  him  all  the 
kingdoms  of  the  world,  and  the  glory  of  them. 

V.  9.  "  And  he  saith  unto  him.  All  these  things 
will  I  give  unto  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and 
worship  me. 

V.  10.  "  Then  said  Jesus  unto  him.  Get  thee 
hence  Satan;  for  it  is  written.  Thou  shalt  wor- 
ship the  Lord  thy  God,  and  him  only  shalt  thou 
serve. 

V.  11.  "  Then  the  devil  leaveth  him,  and  behold, 
angels  came  and  ministered  unto  him." 

It  is  in  vain  that  we  search  to-day  for  even  feeble 


56  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

remains  of  that  exceeding  high  mountain  from 
which  "  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  could  be 
seen." 

There  is  a  mountain,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Jericho,  which  to-day  is  pointed  out  to  travelers  as 
the  one  on  which  Christ  performed  his  long  fast. 
They  told  us  there,  that  zealous  bigots  try  to  rival 
Christ  by  performing  a  similar  feat;  that  some  died 
in  the  attempt,  while  others,  much  better  Chris- 
tians, came  down  to  get  something  to  eat. 

According  to  St.  Matthew,  as  we  have  seen, 
Satan  leaves  Christ  on  a  mountain  ;  but  according  to 
St.  Luke  4:9,  "  Christ  is  left  on  a  pinnacle,"  nor 
■is  there  any  mention  made  here  of  the  angels  which 
came  and  ministered  unto  him,  in  the  same 
way  that  angels  came  and  ministered  unto  Elijah  on 
the  occasion  of  his  long  fast  of  forty  days  and  forty 
nights  (I  Kings  19  :  5). 

The  lively  exclamation  of  the  Evangelist :  "  Be- 
hold !  angels  came,"  etc.,  which  would  make  it  ap- 
pear as  if  he  were  present  on  the  occasion,  shows 
the  spirit  in  which  this  account  is  written. 

This  temptation  was  evidently  motived  by  certain 
sentences  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  ascribed  to  the 
Lord  God  :  while  here,  under  different  conditions, 
they  are  ascribed  to  Christ,  who  is  also  called  the 
Lord. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  57 

Most  every  nation  of  importance  has  practiced 
fasting.  Severe  fasting  must  be  injurious  to  the 
health,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  acceptable  to 
God. 

If  we  consider  the  long  fast  ascribed  to  Christ 
from  a  general  historical  point  of  view,  we  find 
that  far  from  being  an  extraordinary  isolated  occur- 
rence, its  practice  was  in  harmony  with  the  nearly 
universal  belief  of  his  time.  Fasting  is  one  of  the 
many  sorts  of  offerings  believed  to  be  propitiatory. 
To  elevate  one's  self  above  matter,  to  control 
the  passions,  was,  perhaps,  the  primitive  object 
of  the  offering  of  fasting.  The  renouncement  of 
the  pleasures  of  the  senses  is  a  step  towards  the 
spiritual — a  blow  to  the  material.  Chastity  is  an 
offering,  but  its  practice  does  not  destroy  desire, 
fasting  was  resorted  to  to  kill  the  passions.  The 
Bramin,  unlike  the  Christian,  does  not  keep  an 
account  with  God  ;  for  example,  many  Christians 
fast  and  do  penance  to  wipe  out  past  sins — the 
Bramin  does  not  fast  to  balance  any  special  sins  he 
may  have  committed,  but  to  weaken  his  material 
nature  that  the  divine  spark  alone  may  remain. 

He  believes  the  greater  the  penance,  the  holier 
the  man — the  more  he  overcomes  his  sensual  desires 
and  regard  for  material  things,  the  more  closely  he 
is  allied  to  his  pantheistical  god. 


58  THE    EVAXGELISTS. 

The  holy  Bramin  endeavors  to  reduce  his  mate- 
rial individuality,  so  as  to  form  a  more  integral  parr 
of  the  whole  in  nature. 

The  Buddhist  considers  being,  either  as  a  whole  or 
individually,  as  a  misfortune,  and  regards  fasting  as 
one  of  the  many  means  used  to  eliminate  self-con- 
sciousness, and  to  arrive  at  that  happy  state  of  com- 
plete extinction  called  Nirvana  (Bournouf,  Introd. 
a  I'Hist.  du  Bouddhism,  Ind.,  p.  589). 

Severe  fasting  was  found  to  exist  among  the  an- 
cient Mexicans,  and  in  a  milder  form  among  the 
Peruvians  (Garc.  6,  col.  20). 

Fasting  was  practiced  among  all  those  nations  to 
an  extent  that  their  precedence  over  Christians  is 
guaranteed,  if  self-torture  be  the  measure  of  virtue. 

Among  the  Chinese,  this  sort- of  offering  is  un- 
known, as  their  religion  and  philosophy  teach  that 
"  whatever  is,  is  right."  Man's  nature  is  reasonable  : 
if  he  perverts  it  by  transgressing  the  eternal  laws, 
he  must  endeavor  to  purify  it  by  becoming  like  a 
little  child.  The  great  philosopher  said  :  "  I  have 
passed  entire  days  without  nourishment,  and  entire 
nights  without  sleep,  to  give  myself  up  to  medita- 
tion, and  that  without  any  real  utility  :  study  is 
much  preferable"  (Lun-yu,  chap.  15,  30). 

Again,  the  old  Parsee  or  Zend  religion  did  not 
permit  fasting.     "If  man  eats  nothing  he  is  with- 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  59 

out  strength,  and  is  not  able  to  perform  pure  works. 
There  will  be  neither  strong  laborers  nor  robust 
children,  if  there  is  a  want  of  food.  The  world,  as 
it  exists,  lives  by  nourishment"  (Zend-Avesta,  ven- 
didad,  vol.  ii.  p.  284). 

Among  the  Israelites,  the  abstaining  from  certain 
aliments  during  the  feast  of  the  passover  was  pre- 
scribed by  the  following  law  : 

"Whoever  eateth  leavened  bread  from  the  first 
day  until  the  seventh  day,  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off 
from  Israel." 

Besides,  the  Jews  fasted  in  the  fourth,  fifth,  se- 
venth, and  tenth  month  of  their  year  (Zach.  8 :  19). 

The  Pharisees,  Essenians,  and  Therapeutans  per- 
petuated the  offering  of  fasting  among  the  Jews. 

Fasting  may  have  been  considered  as  a  mere  holy 
preparation  by  some  of  the  early  Christians,  but  it 
was  also  considered  as  a  penance. 

The  quadrigesimal  or  forty  days'  fast  was  regarded 
as  derived  from  the  long  fast  of  Moses,  or  as  a  tenth 
of  time  given  to  God. 

In  early  times,  exceedingly  severe  fasting  was 
practiced.  Nothing  but  bread  was  eaten,  and  that 
at  a  late  hour  of  the  day.  This  usage  gradually  as- 
sumed a  milder  form,  and  was  at  length  converted 
into  an  object  of  speculation,  as  the  spiritual  bene- 
fits of  fasting  can  be  purchased  in  the  R.  C.  church. 


60  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

To-day,  the  Greek  church  recognizes  more  fasts 
than  the  Latin. 

It  is  among  Asiatic  Christians  that  fasting  is  the 
most  strictly  observed,  and  in  fact  with  the  Maron- 
ites,  Syrians,  and  Armenians  fasting  is  so  highlv  es- 
teemed, that  the  greater  part  of  the  year  is  composed 
of  fast  days. 

It  is  very  wearisome  to  reflect  upon  such  stories  as 
these  ;  but  it  is  still  more  so  to  see  in  other  respects 
capable  persons  maintain  a  verbal  belief  therein. 

This  arises  in  a  great  measure  from  ignorance,  and 
an  undetermined  early  education  in  which  the  study 
of  the  scriptures  is  so  bound  together  with  our  af- 
fection for  those  who  taught  us,  that  we  mingle 
indiscriminately  the  teachings  of  these  things  with 
our  most  tender  remembrances,  thus  rendering  most 
difficult  every  change  in  the  souvenirs  of  our  child- 
hood. If  our  fathers  had  studiously  endeavored  to 
attach  such  stories  as  these  to  the  great  principles 
of  Christianity,  and  render  an  account  of  the  edifi- 
cation they  had  derived  therefrom,  they  would,  we 
believe,  have  found  it  a  most  difficult  task  to  perform. 

THE   CASTING    OF   JOHN    THE    BAPTIST    INTO    PRISON. 

By  comparing  this  event,  as  narrated  by  St.  Mat- 
thew and  St.  John,  with  a  second  event  (the  journey 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  61 

of  Christ  into  Galilee),  we  find  great  discordance 
in  the  time. 

Thus,  St.  Matthew  4  :  12,  "  Now  when  Jesus  had 
heard  that  John  was  cast  into  prison,  he  departed 
into  Galilee."  As  a  subsequent  event  which  marks 
the  time  of  this  first  journey  into  Galilee,  Jesus  is 
made,  ch.  4  :  18-21,  "  to  choose,  while  there,  four  of 
his  disciples,  Peter,  Andrew,  James  and  John."  Con- 
trary to  this,  St.  John  informs  us,  ch.  1  :  40,  41, 
"  That  the  disciples  Peter  and  Andrew  were  chosen 
before  Christ  went  into  Galilee,"  and  he  completes 
the  contradiction  by  saying,  some  time  after  the 
election  of  those  disciples,  ch.  3  :  24,  that  "  John 
the  Baptist  was  not  yet  cast  into  prison." 

Christ's  journey  into  galllee. 

V.  12.  "  Now  when  Jesus  had  heard  that  John  was 
cast  into  prison,  he  departed  into  Galilee. 

V.  13.  "  And  leaving  Nazareth,  he  came  and  dwelt 
in  Capernaum,  which  is  upon  the  sea-coast,  in  the 
borders  of  Zabulon  and  Nephthalim. 

V.  14.  "  That  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was 
spoken  by  Esaias,  the  Prophet,  saying, 

V.  15.  "  The  land  of  Zabulon  and  the  land  of 
Nephthalim,  by  the  way  of  the  sea,  beyond  Jordan, 
Galilee  of  the  Gentiles  : 


62  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

V.  16.  "  The  people  which  sat  in  darkness  saw 
great  light ;  and  to  them  which  sat  in  the  region  and 
shadow  of  death,  light  is  sprung  up." 

St.  Matthew  has  made  here  a  partial,  incorrect, 
and  isolated  quotation  from  this  passage  of  Isaiah, 
ch.  9:1.  "  Nevertheless,  the  dimness  shall  not  be 
such  as  was  in  her  vexation,  when  at  the  first  he 
lightly  afflicted  the  land  of  Zebulun,  and  the  land  of 
Naphtali,  and  afterward  did  more  grievously  afflict 
her  by  the  way  of  the  sea^  beyond  Jordan,  in 
Galilee  of  the  nations. 

V.  2.  "  The  people  that  walked  in  darkness  have 
seen  a  great  light  :  they  that  dwell  in  the  land  of  the 
shadow  of  death,  upon  them  hath  the  light  shined." 

In  his  quotation,  St.  Matthew  supposes  Christ 
the  great  spiritual  light  to  have  been  foretold  by 
Isaiah ;  but,  in  the  prophet,  every  verb  referring  to 
that  light  is  in  the  past  tense. 

Isaiah  the  prophet  wrote  under  King  Jotham 
(Isaiah  1 :  1)  who  reigned  in  Jerusalem ;  while 
Pekah,  king  of  Israel,  governed  in  Samaria  (II. 
Kings  15  :   32;. 

We  learn  also,  (in  II.  Kings,  15  :  29),  that  "In 
the  days  of  Pekah,  king  of  Israel,  came  Tiglath- 
pileser,  king  of  Assyria,  and  took  Gilead  and  Galilee, 
all  the  land  of  Naphtali,  and  carried  them  captive  to 
Assyria." 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  63 

To  these  cotemporaneous  events  it  is,  no  doubt, 
that  Isaiah  refers,  ch.  9:  1,  in  speaking  of  the 
affliction  undergone  by  the  people  of  the  land  of  Ze- 
bulun,  Naphthali,  and  Galilee. 

Whether  he  refers  to  their  freedom  from  bondage 
or  not,  it  is  certain  that  he  refers  to  events  already 
past,  and  which  must  necessarily  have  taken  place 
long  before  Christ. 


CHAPTER    V. 
Christ's  sermon  on  the  mount. 

This,  together  with  the  two  following  chapters, 
contains  the  discourse  commonly  known  as  the  "  Ser- 
mon on  the  Mount ;"  not  very  properly  so  called, 
however,  as  from  a  parallel  examination  of  St.  Mat- 
thew and  St.  Luke,  the  precise  locality  of  this  event 
-remains  undetermined.  Thus,  St.  Matthew,  5:1: 
"  And  seeing  the  multitude,  he  werU  up  into  a  mount- 
ain, and  when  he  was  set,"  etc.  Referring  to  the 
locality  where  this  discourse  was  held,  St.  Luke 
says,  ch.  6 :  "  And  he  came  down  with  them,  and 
stood  in  the  plain. 

These  life-like  descriptions,  which  portray  the 
exact  position  of  Christ,  would  seem  to  attest  the 
actual  presence  of  the  narrator,  or  at  least  to  con- 
tain the  exactness  of  inspiration — if  they  did  not 
contradict  each  other. 

If  the  same  latitude  of  expression  were  allowed 
to  two  historians  transmitting  the  ten  command- 
ments, the  result  would  be  disastrous. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OP    VIEW.  65 

As  many  figurative  accounts  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment have  served  the  Evangelists  as  bases  of  some 
specific  action  ascribed  to  Christ,  so,  also,  in  his 
moral  doctrine,  we  find  that  many  sentences  of  the 
Old  Testament  have  been  made  use  of,  and  often 
verbally. 

In  our  parallel  between  the  moral  doctrine  of 
Christ,  and  that  existing  before  his  time,  we  shall 
only  refer  to  the  Old  Testament,  and  to  those  books 
alone  which  are  received  as  canonical ;  for  if  we 
should  take  the  Apocryphal  books  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  Jewish  writings  into  consider- 
ation, there  is  not  a  moral  sentence  ascribed  to 
Christ  which  could  not  be  found  in  some  one  of 
them. 

The  following  are  some  of  the  principal  parallels: 

St.  Mat.  V.  3,  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit ; 
for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 

Prov.  15  :  33,  "  Before  honor  is  humility. 

Prov.  16 :  5,  "  Every  one  that  is  proud  in  heart 
is  an  abomination  to  the  Lord." 


St.  Mat.  5 :  4,  "  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn, 
for  they  shall  be  comforted." 

Ps.  149  :  3,  "  He  healeth  the  broken  in  heart,  and 
bindeth  up  their  wounds." 


66  .  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

St.  Mat.  5:5,^'  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they 
shall  inherit  the  earth." 

Ps.  149  :  6,  "  The  Lord  lifteth  up  the  meek." 
Ps.  37  :  11,  "  The  meek  shall  inherit  the  earth." 


St.  Mat.  5  :  6,  "  Blessed  are  they  which  hunger 
and  thirst  after  righteousness,  for  they  shall  be 
filled." 

Isaiah  58  ;  10,  "  And  if  thou  draw  out  thy  soul  to 
the  hungry,  and  satisfy  the  afflicted  soul ;  then  shall 
thy  light  rise  in  obscurity,  and  thy  darkness  be  as 
the  noon  day. 

V.  11,  "  And  the  Lord  shall  guide  thee  continu- 
ally, and  satisfy  thy  soul  in  drought,  and  make  fat 
thy  bones." 


St.  Mat.  5  :  8,  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  heart, 
for  they  shall  see  God." 

Ps.  24  :  3,  "Who  shall  ascend  into  the  hill  of  the 
Lord  ?  or  who  shall  stand  in  his  holy  place  ? 

V.  4,  "  He  that  hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure 
heart." 


St.  Mat.  5  :  38,  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath 
been  said,  An  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a 
tooth. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  67 

v.  39,  "  But  I  say  unto  you  that  ye  remit  not 
evil." 

Prov.  20  :  22,  "  Say  not  thou,  I  will  recompense 
evil." 

Prov.  24 :  29,  "  Say  not  I  will  do  so  to  him  as  he 
hath  done  to  me." 


St.  Mat.  22  :  37,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  mind." 

Deut.  6  :  5,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  might." 


St.  Mat.  22  :  39,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself." 

LeviL.  19  :  IS,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself." 


We  deduce  from  these  parallels  that  the  moral 
principles  ascribed  to  Christ  may  have  been  taught 
by  him,  but  did  not  originate  with  him. 

In  the  time  of  Christ,  the  Jews  no  longer  followed 
the  spirit  but  the  letter  of  the  law.  It  was  not  so 
much  against  their  external  actions,  as  against  the 
spirit  that  dictated  them,  that  Christ  combated. 

For  example,  compare  the  conflicting  doctrines 


68  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

of  Christ  and  the  Jews  with  regard  to  the  observ- 
ance of  the  Sabbath,  prayer,  fasting,  etc. 

With  regard  to  the  Sabbath,  the  Jews  held  it  in 
superstitious  respect,  and  taught  that  on  this  day 
it  was  wicked  to  walk  beyond  a  prescribed  and 
limited  distance  (Exod.  16  :  29)  ;  in  opposition  to 
this  Christ  taught,  St.  Matthew  12  :  8,  "  That  the  son 
of  man  is  Lord  even  of  the  Sabbath-day,"  and  that, 
V.  12,  "It  is  lawful  to  do  well  on  the  Sabbath-days." 

Of  swearing,  Christ  says  : 

St.  Mat.  5  :  34,  35,  "  Swear  not  at  all,  neither 
by  the  heaven,  the  earth,  nor  by  Jerusalem." 

The  Jews  were  in  the  habit  of  swearing  by  Jeru- 
salem or  their  head,  and  then  of  breaking  such 
oaths,  under  the  pretense  that  as  they  did  not  con- 
tain the  name  of  God  they  were  not  binding  (St. 
Mat.  23  :  16-21). 

It  must  have  been  such  faithless  practices  as  these 
that  Christ  condemned,  for  there  is  nothing  bad  in 
calling  upon  God,  as  the  all-knowing,  to  witness  the 
truth  of  an  assertion. 

When  the  High  Priest  adjured  Christ  by  the  ever- 
living  God,  Christ  made  a  reply,  and  thus  took  an 
oath  in  the  manner  common  in  his  day  {vide  St. 
Mat.  26  :  63  ). 

So,  again,  St.  Paul,  I.  Romans  1  :  9,  calls  God  to 
witness  his  veracity,  and  thus  takes  an  oath. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  69 

Concerning  prayer,  the  Jews  formerly,  like  the 
Mohammedans  of  to-day,  prayed  in  whatsoever  place 
they  found  themselves  at  the  fixed  hour  of  prayer. 

Christ  taught :  St.  Mat.  6:6,"  When  thou 
prayest,  enter  into  thy  closet. 

V.  7,  "  And  when  you  pray,  use  not  vain  repeti- 
tions, as  the  heathen  do  ;  for  they  think  they  shall 
be  heard  for  their  much  speaking." 

This  modest  prescription  was  a  salutary  lesson  for 
the  hypocrisy  of  the  Jews,  and  is  one  of  those 
standard  sayings  which  has  not  lost  its  application 
even  in  our  days. 

Christ  by  no  means  held  all  the  principles  of  the 
Jews  as  infallible,  as  we  see  in  ch.  5  :  21,  22,  27, 
28,  33,  34,  43,  44. 

Christ  accepted  those  laws  of  Moses  as  divine 
which  tended  to  confirm  man  in  practices  conform- 
able with  nature  and  order  ;  but  he  never  based  a 
belief  in  moral  principles  upon  tradition  or  miracles. 

Christ  could  not  have  accepted  the  laws  of  Moses 
as  divine  merely  because  Jewish  history  surrounded 
their  origin  with  miraculous  events. 

For  as  surely  as  a  divine  law  remains  divine,  so 
certainly  would  he  have  been  obliged  to  observe  the 
law  which  forbids  the  use  of  wine  as  food ;  for,  Le- 
viticus 11:  7,  "This  law  was  given  by  a  direct 
command  of  God:'     But  Christ  taught  that  not  that 


70  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

which  goeth  into  the  mouth  defileth  a  man  (St. 
Matt.  15  :  11). 

The  ten  commandments  did  not  spring  suddenly 
into  existence  on  Mt.  Sinai,  but  were  necessarily- 
established  to  enforce  order  in  the  first  state  of 
society. 

That  they  existed  long  before  the  time  of  Moses, 
is  best  attested  in  the  book  of  Genesis. 

Did  not  God  bless  the  Sabbath  at  the  creation  ? 

Was  not  murder  condemned  in  Cain? 

Was  not  Canaan  condemned  because  Ham  did  not 
honor  his  father  Noah  ? 

Was  not  adultery  condemned  in  Abimelech — 
-threatened  with  death  for  taking  the  wife  of  Abra- 
ham? 

Is  it  reasonable  to  believe  in  moral  law  as  divine 
because  historians  attest  miracles  to  have  acompa- 
nied  their  presentation  to  mankind?  Would  not 
this  transfer  our  belief  in  those  laws  to  the  credi- 
bility of  the  historian  ? 

If  miracles  were  necessary  to  maKe  mankind  re- 
ceive the  purely  moral  laws  of  Moses,  they  would 
be  necessary  on  every  subsequent  occasion  of  their 
reception. 

There  is  nothing  in  an  attested  miraculous  event 
which  we  can  feel,  act  upon,  or  imitate. 

We  accept  a  moral  principle,  such  as  "  Love  thy 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  71 

neighbor  as  thyself,"  as  divine  or  normal  with  the 
law  of  justice,  because  it  contains  a  self-evident 
truth,  which  we  can  prove  by  its  application  to  our 
own  nature,  without  the  slightest  regard  to  the 
credibility  of  the  historian. 

Does  a  child  or  a  heathen,  in  performing  a  moral 
action,  first  recall  to  mind  a  moral  of  Moses  or  of 
Christ  ? 

Christ  did  not  create  virtue  or  vice.  Virtue  and 
vice  have  had,  for  natural  effect,  pleasure  and  pain, 
happiness  and  misery,  since  the  beginning. 

The  human  mind,  at  its  creation,  was  composed 
of  certain  faculties  capable  of  the  same  action  as  to- 
day— a  similar  movement  causing  a  similar  result. 

The  law  of  cause  and  effect  is  immutable — a  simi- 
lar cause  always  having  had  a  similar  effect ;  thus,  a 
humorous  or  serious  account  of  antiquity  has  the 
same  effect  upon  us  as  upon  the  cotemporaries  of 
the  writer ;  that  is,  the  part  purely  serious  or 
comic,  and  not  depending  for  appreciation  upon  a 
presupposed  particular  knowledge  or  belief 

The  Jews  in  general  measured  morality  by  ex- 
ternal action ;  Christ  endeavored  to  base  it  upon  the 
inner,  invisible  domain  of  thought — making  man 
morally  responsible  for  nourishing  impure  thoughts. 

Christ  made  this  natural  sentiment  of  order  and 

truth  the  basis  of  religion,  or  of  faith  in  truth. 
6 


72  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

The  greatness  and  superiority  of  Christ  consisted 
in  his  simplicity. 

The  power  of  laying  down  and  acting  upon  incon- 
trovertible moral  principles  is  the  most  simple,  most 
difficult,  and  greatest  action  of  which  man's  mind  is 
capable. 

The  most  difficult,  because  necessitating  the  most 
complete  divestment  of  external  influencing  causes. 

The  most  simple,  because  the  most  innate ;  it 
remaining  to  genius  alone  to  express  a  sentiment  or 
thought  so  simply  as  to  make  it  appear  of  our  own 
creation. 

The  greatest,  because  affecting  all  men  bene- 
ficially. 

Christ  taught  nothing  more  divine  than  truthful 
principles,  which,  like  flames,  are  all  similar — those 
taught  before  Christ,  by  Christ,  and  since  Christ's 
time. 

True  religion  is  based  upon  man's  intelligence 
and  sentiment  of  truth :  that  which  affects  neither 
of  these  faculties  is  a  conventional  belief. 

In  a  word,  it  overthrows  all  local  barriers  and 
introduces  universality,  teaching  individuals  and 
nations  that  every  part  of  humanity  affects  the  rest, 
and  that  true  progress  is  alone  made  when  all  parts 
continue  to  hold  their  relative  progressive  posi- 
tion. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

CURIST    STILLETH    THE    TEMPEST. 

The  evangelist  gives  the  following  description  of 
Christ's  calming  the  sea  : 

8  :  23.  "And  when  he  was  entered  into  a  ship  his 
disciples  followed  him. 

V.  24.  "And  behold  there  arose  a  great  tempest 
in  the  sea,  insomuch  that  the  ship  was  covered  with 
the  waves ;  but  he  was  asleep. 

V.  25.  "And  his  disciples  came  to  him  and  awoke 
him,  saying.  Lord,  save  us  :  we  perish. 

V.  26.  "And  he  saith  unto  them,  Why  are  ye 
fearful,  0,  ye  of  little  faith?  Then  he  arose  and 
rebuked  the  winds  and  the  sea;  and  there  was  a 
great  calm. 

Compare  with  this  whole  story  the  poetical  de- 
scription of  the  Psalmist : 

Ps.  107  :  23.  "  They  that  go  down  to  the  sea  in 
ships,  that  do  business  in  great  waters 

V.  24.  "  These  see  the  works  of  the  Lord,  and  his 
wonders  in  the  deep. 


74  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

V.  25.  "  For  he  commandeth  and  raiseth  the 
stormy  wind,  which  lifteth  up  the  waves  thereof. 

V.  26.  "  They  mount  up  to  the  heavens,  they  go 
down  again  to  the  depths :  their  soul  is  melted 
because  of  trouble. 

V.  27.  "They  reel  to  and  fro,  and  stagger  like  a 
drunken  man,  and  are  at  their  wit's  end. 

V.  28.  "  Then  they  cry  unto  the  Lord  in  their 
trouble,  and  he  bringeth  them  out  of  their  dis- 
tresses. 

V.  29.  "  He  maketh  the  storm  a  calm,  so  that  the 
waves  thereof  are  still. 

V.  30.  "  Then  are  they  glad  because  they  be  quiet ; 
so  he  bringeth  them  unto  their  desired  haven. 

Is  not  this  another  of  those  numerous  cases  in 
which  the  evangelist  has  converted  a  beautiful 
poetical  description  by  the  Psalmist  of  the  all-pow- 
erfulness  of  the  Lord  into  an  historical  fact  relating 
to  Christ  ? 

The  argument  used  on  this  and  other  similar 
occasions  was  simply  this  :  The  Lord  maketh  the 
storm  a  calm,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Lord,  consequent- 
ly Christ  calmed  a  storm  at  sea ! 

Liberal  deductions  of  this  kind  are  often  made  by 
the  Evangelists,  which  we  shall  point  out  in  their 
proper  connection. 

While  the  descriptions  of  the  Old  Testament  are 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  75 

brilliant  and  full  of  nerve,  the  Evangelist  retails  dull 
accounts  of  unlikely  events,  fashioned  out  of  the 
ideas  and  words  of  those  older  writings. 

For  instance,  was  it  not  natural  that  the  disciples 
should  have  been  fearful  in  such  a  storm  ?  and  is  it 
not  unlikely  that  men  who  had  seen  their  master 
perform  so  many  miracles,  should  have  cried  out,  v. 
27,  "What  manner  of  man  is  this?" 

CHRIST   DRIVETH    THE    DEVILS    OUT    OF    GERGESENES. 

V.  28.  "  And  when  he  was  come  to  the  other  side, 
into  the  country  of  the  Gergesenes,  there  met  him 
two  possessed  with  devils,  coming  out  of  the  tombs, 
exceeding  fierce,  so  that  no  man  might  pass  by  that 
way. 

V.  29.  "  And,  behold,  they  cried  out,  saying. 
What  have  we  to  do  with  thee,  Jesus,  thou  son  of 
God?  Art  thou  come  hither  to  torment  us  before 
the  time  ? 

V.  30.  "  And  there  was  a  good  way  off  from 
them  an  herd  of  many  swine  feeding. 

V.  31.  "So  the  devils  besought  him,  saying.  If 
thou  cast  us  out,  suffer  us  to  go  away  into  the  herd 
of  swine. 

V.  32.  "  And  he  saith  unto  them.  Go.  And 
when  they  were  come  out,  they  went  into  the  herd 


76  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

of  swine  :  and  behold,  the  whole  herd  of  swine  ran 
violently  down  a  steep  place  into  the  sea,  and  per- 
ished in  the  waters." 

As,  in  the  present  mathematical  age,  there  are 
many  persons  who,  being  unfamiliar  with  figura- 
tive modes  of  expression  common  to  eastern  writ- 
ers, overlook  the  fact  that  a  moral  can  be  drawn 
from  a  figure,  and  erroneously  suppose  a  literal 
reception  of  the  evangelistical  accounts  to  be  sy- 
nonymous with  religion,  we  shall  for  this  reason 
attentively  consider  the  present  account,  and  expose 
with  exactness  the  remarkable  belief  that  its  verbal 
acceptation  would  entail. 

Admitting  the  personality  of  devils,  we  have  here 
some  most  heterogeneous  personages,  possessing  the 
power  of  foresight,  and  versed  in  the  divine  doc- 
trine ;  for  they  recognize  Christ  on  his  approach  as 
the  Son  of  God,  and  by  the  question,  "  Art  thou 
come  hither  to  torment  us  before  our  time  ?"  they 
betray  their  knowledge  of  the  doctrine  of  the  last 
judgment ;  besides,  this  question  implies  that  the 
evil  ones  have  also  their  rights,  and  that,  until  the 
day  of  judgment,  they  expected  to  live  in  peace,  for 
they  are  exceedingly  surprised  at  being  disturbed. 

Upon  seeing  Christ,  these  mixed  beings  were  so 
terrified,  that  the  devils  who  were  temporarily 
residing  in  these  Gergesenes  or  (St.  Luke,  8  :  26) 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OP    VIEW.  77 

Gadarenes,  beg  to  leave  their  human  victhns  and  to 
enter  into  the  bodies  of  about  2,000  hogs  (Mark,  5 : 
13),  who  were  feeding  on  the  mountain-side  oppo- 
site.    At  the  command  of  Christ,  the  devils  vanish. 

And  now  they  enter  into  a  herd  of  swine,  who, 
unlike  the  Gergesenes,  find  them  intolerable,  and 
soon  discomforted,  furious  and  reckless,  they  gallop 
down  the  steep  mountain-side,  and  throw  themselves 
headlong  into  the  sea,  where  they  are  choked. 

Of  the  two  naked  men,  the  legion  of  devils,  and 
the  large  herd  of  2,000  swine,  nothing  remains,  ac- 
cording to  St.  Luke  8  :  35,  after  this  miracle,  but 
one  man  clothed  and  in  his  right  mind. 

This  story  can,  perhaps,  be  made  to  express  figura- 
tively the  serious  struggle  in  man's  mind,  between 
his  passions  and  his  instinctive  consciousness  of 
right ;  or,  that  those  who  accept  Christ  or  Christian 
principles  are  able  to  expel  the  devil  or  evil 
thoughts  ;  but  accepted  verbatim  !  ! 


CHAPTER   IX. 

ST.    MATTHEW    IS    CALLED    TO    BECOME    A    DISCIPLE, 

The  synoptikers  relate  this  event  in  the  following 
manner  : 

St.  Mat.  9  :  9.  "  And  as  Jesus  passed  forth  from 
thence,  he  saw  a  man  named  Matthew,  sitting  at  the 
receipt  of  custom  :  and  he  saith  unto  him,  Follow 
me.     And  he  arose  and  followed  him." 

St.  Mark  2  :  14.  "  And  as  he  passed  by,  he  saw 
Levi  the  son  of  Alphaeus,  sitting  at  the  receipt  of 
custom,  and  said  unto  him,  Follow  me.  And  he 
arose  and  followed  him." 

St.  Luke  5  :  27.  "  And  after  these  things  he  went 
forth,  and  saw  a  Publican  named  Levi,  sitting  at  the 
receipt  of  custom  :  and  he  said  unto  him.  Follow 
me. 

V.  28.  "  And  he  left  all,  rose  up,  and  followed 
him." 

The  phraseology  in  these  three  cases  is  so  similar 
that  they  may  be  considered  as  equivalent  to  one 
testimony  only,  but  in  this  nearly  verbal  parallel 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  79 

the  evangelists  disagree  as  to  the  name  of  the  dis- 
ciple chosen.  This  incongruity  is  avoided  by  apolo- 
gists, who  assume  liberally  that  Levi  and  Matthew 
were  the  same  person. 

Certainly  St.  Matthew  speaks  of  his  own  calling 
in  a  most  objective  manner. 

THE    RESUSCITATION    OF     JAIRUS'    DAUGHTER. 

Elijah  raised  from  death  the  widow's  son  (I.Kings 
17  •  19).  The  prophet  Elisha  brought  to  life  the 
Shunammite's  son  (II.  Kings  4:  34).  So  Christ, 
supposed  to  be  the  incarnate  Elijah,  resuscitated  the 
daughter  of  Jairus. 


CHAPTER  X. 

NAMES  AND  NUMBER  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 


St.  Mat.  10  :  2,  3,  4.        St. 

Mark 

3:  16. 

St.  Luke  6  :  14. 

1.  Simon,  sur.  Peter,    1. 

" 

" 

1. 

(( 

li 

2.  Andrew,                   2. 

" 

(( 

2. 

(( 

(( 

3.  James,                      3. 

(C 

ti 

3. 

(( 

(( 

4.  John,                       *  4. 

lE 

« 

4. 

(( 

C( 

"  5.  Philip,                      5. 

a 

<( 

5. 

(( 

(( 

6.  Bartholomew,            6. 

" 

(( 

C. 

(( 

<( 

7.  Thomas,                    1. 

C( 

ii 

7. 

(( 

(( 

8.  Matthew,                  8. 

(( 

a 

8. 

(( 

« 

9.  Jamas,  son  of  Al-     9. 

(( 

ii 

9. 

(( 

(C 

phacus. 

10.  Lebbaens,  son  of  10. 

(( 

(C 

10. 

wanting. 

Thaddaeus, 

11.  Simon,                    11. 

(< 

(( 

11. 

(f 

ei 

12.  Judas  Iscariot.        12. 

(( 

(( 

12. 

(C 

a 

1^?                                  1^ 

13. 

.TnrloQ   V\i.rk+Tio>*  /\P 

xo.                                        ±o. 

o  uuuo.  y 

James. 

JL  \J  KA±^L    VJL 

Each  of  the  Evangelists,  in  his  enumeration  of  the 
apostles,  mentions  twelve ;  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Mark  coincide  perfectly,  but  St.  Luke  omits  one, 
Lebbaeus,  surnamed  Thaddaeus,  and  in  his  stead  in- 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  81 

serts  another  named  Judas,  brother  of  James,  and, 
consequently,  raises  the  number  to  thirteen. 

There  is  only  one  way  of  harmonizing  these  lists, 
and  that  is  based  on  an  hypothesis.  It  is  to  suppose 
Judas  to  have  been  the  name  of  the  apostle,  and, 
contrary  to  the  statement,  that  both  Lebbaeus  and 
Thaddaeus  were  surnames.  This  hypothesis  is  based 
upon  the  analogy  of  the  two  names ;  thus  '^'nn 
(Thadai)  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  'in  (Tiiad) 
=  breast,  or  ^'4  (Shad)  "  mamma."  On  the  other 
hand,  ^5?  (Lebai)  is  derived  from  ab  (Leb)  which  sig- 
nifies the  heart. 

Thus  tlie  deductions  made  from  the  analogy  of 
these  two  names  must  convince  the  reader  that  they 
not  only  formed  one  name,  but  also  a  surname  of 
Judas,  otherwise  he  must  accept  of  thirteen  apos- 
tles. 

Matthias,  who  was  chosen  to  succeed  Judas 
Iscariot  (Acts  1  :  26),  maintained  the  number  of 
apostles  at  thirteen. 

SECOND    COMING    OF   CIIIUST. 

Inasmuch  as  the  universal  judgment,  and  other 
events,  which  the  Jews  expected  would  take  place 
at  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  did  not  occur  at  the 
advent  of  Christ,  he  was  necessarily  expected  to  re- 


S2  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

appear,  and,  erroneously,  during  the  lifetime  of  his 
cotemporaries. 

At  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  the  Jews  expected 
magical  effects  in  nature :  all  nations  were  to  be 
gathered  together  in  the  Valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and 
there  judged — the  enemies  of  the  Jews  were  to  be 
destroyed,  and  all  they  that  were  left  were  to  go 
up  to  worship  God  in  Jerusalem  (Joel  2  :  31 ;  Joel 
3:  1,  2,  12,  20;  Zach.  12:  4-9;  Zach.  14:  4,  9, 
12,  16,  17). 

Now,  at  the  death  of  Christ,  the  sun  was  dark- 
ened, and  the  rocks  were  rent,  but  the  great  judg- 
ment in  the  Valley  of  Jehoshaphat  did  not  take  place, 
-for  which  reason,  St.  Paul  and  the  Evangelist  aver 
that  these  things  will  happen  at  the  return  of 
Christ.  This  second  coming  is  altogether  original 
with  the  followers  of  Christ.  The  prophets  never 
foretold  nor  entertained  the  slightest  idea  of  such  an 
event. 

It  does  not  seem  possible,  then,  that  Christ  could 
have  spoken  the  following  words,  ascribed  to  him 
by  St.  Mat.  16 :  28  :  "  Verily,  I  say  unto  you, 
there  be  some  standing  here  which  shall  not  taste 
of  death  till  they  see  the  son  of  man  coming  in  his 
kingdom." 

Nor  is  it  a  less  notorious  error  where  Christ,  in 
referring  to  his  second  coming,  is  made  to  say,  St. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  83 

Mat.  24:  34:  "Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  this  gen- 
eration shall  not  pass  till  all  these  things  be  ful- 
filled." 

St.  Paul,  also,  was  deceived  in  his  expectation 
when  he  wrote,  1  Thess.  4:  16:  "For  the  Lord 
himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout,  with 
the  voice  of  the  archangel  Michael  (Danl.  12 :  1), 
with  the  trump  of  God,  and  the  dead  in  Christ 
shall  rise  first. 

V.  17.  "  Then  we  which  are  alive  and  remain, 
shall  be  caught  up  together  with  them  in  the  clouds, 
to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air." 

Thus,  according  to  the  biblical  statement,  this 
event  ought,  if  ever,  to  have  taken  place  long  ago. 

KESURRECTION    AND    LAST   JUDGMENT. 

Connected,  in  the  mind  of  the  Evangelist,  with 
the  second  coming  of  Christ,  w^as  the  belief  in  the 
resurrection  and  judgment  of  mankind.  This  belief 
was  derived  from  the  old  Jewish  doctrine,  for  Daniel 
teaches  a  similar  judgment,  with  this  peculiarity, 
that  Michael  is  to  advocate  the  Jewish  interests. 
Dan.  12:  1,  "And  at  that  time  shall  Michael  stand 
up,  the  great  prince  which  standeth  for  the  children 
of  thy  people ;  and  there  shall  be  a  time  of  trouble, 
such  as  never  was  since  there  was  a  nation,  even  to 


84  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

that  same  time  ;  and  at  that  time,  thy  people  shall 
be  delivered,  every  one  that  shall  be  found  written 
in  the  book. 

V.  2.  "  And  many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust 
of  the  earth,  shall  awake  ;  some  to  everlasting  life, 
and  some  to  shame  and  everlasting  contempt." 

That  Christ  never  taught  the  necessity  of  a  last 
judgment,  to  enjoy  Paradise,  can  be  deduced  from 
his  speech  to  the  malefactor  on  the  cross,  St.  Luke 
23 :  43 :  "  To-day  thou  shalt  be  with  me  in  Paradise." 

Again,  St.  John  11 :  25  :  "  Jesus  said  unto  her 
(Martha),  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life  ;  he 
that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet 
shall  he  live." 

From  this  we  infer  that  man  does  not  first  enter 
into  a  spiritual  life  at  the  indefinite  period  of  a  last 
judgment;  and,  also,  that  souls  which  can  live 
without  a  body  till  the  day  of  judgment,  will  not 
be  in  absolute  necessity  of  a  body  at  that  epoch. 

Man,  believing  in  immortality,  naturally  espouses 
the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  as  a 
necessary  vehicle  to  carry  his  immortal  individ- 
uality, for  which  simple  reason,  this  belief  was 
common,  not  only  to  the  old  Egyptian  and  Peru- 
vian nations,  as  is  evident  from  their  mummies, 
but,  also,  to  many  savage  tribes  of  America  and 
Africa. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  85 

The  Jewish  doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  which 
is  not  spoken  of  before  their  exile,  was  apparently 
derived  from  Babylon,  and  the  doctrine  of  Zoroas- 
ter {vide  Zend-Avesta  and  Boun  Dehesch,  sec.  31). 


CHAPTER    XI. 

MUTUAL    ATTESTATION    OF    CHRIST  AND  JOHN    THE    BAPTIST. 

It  was  necessary  for  the  Evangelist  to  ascribe  to 
Christ  all  those  events  prophecied  as  accompanying 
the  Messiah  ;  it  w^as  also  desirable  to  show  that 
John  the  Baptist  was  foretold  by  the  prophets  as 
the  forerunner  of  Christ. 

"  To  place  their  identity  beyond  a  doubt,  St.  Mat- 
thew has  recourse  in  this  chapter  to  a  singular 
method. 

It  consists  in  adducing  an  argument  in  favor  of 
Christ,  as  the  expected  Messiah,  by  making  John  the 
Baptist  recognize  him  as  such  ;  immediately  after 
which,  John  the  Baptist  is  made  to  be  identified  by 
Christ,  as  also  having  been  foretold  by  the  prophets. 
Although  we  see  at  a  glance  that  there  exists  no 
basis  of  recognition  in  this  circular  method  of  iden- 
tification, yet  we  will  expose  the  testimony  of  both, 
in  order  to  show  the  improbability  of  the  one,  and 
the  impossibility  of  the  other. 

On  the  one  hand,  is  it  not  pei-plexing  now  long 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  87 

after  the  baptism  at  the  Jordan,  that  John  the  Bap- 
tist should  send  two  of  his  disciples  to  demand  of 
Christ, 

V.  23.  "  Art  thou  he  that  should  come,  or  do  we 
look  for  another  ?" 

If  John  was  not  convinced  of  Christ's  right  to  the 
office  of  a  Messiah,  by  the  direct  supernatural  evi- 
dence given  him  at  the  Jordan,  it  is  improbable  that 
he  would  have  been  influenced  by  the  indirect  attest- 
ation of  his  disciples. 

We  will  now  consider  the  second  testimony,  con- 
sisting in  a  quotation  in  favor  of  John  the  Baptist. 

Christ,  in  speaking  of  him,  is  made  to  say,  v.  10 : 
"  For  this  is  he  of  whom  it  is  written,  Behold,  I 
send  my  messenger  before  thy  face,  which  shall  pre- 
pare thy  way  before  thee." 

This  would  convey  the  idea  that  John  the  Baptist 
was  foretold  as  the  precursor  of  Christ  or  the 
Messiah. 

Compare  with  this  quotation  the  original  passage 
of  the  prophet  Malachi,  ch.  3:1:  "  Behold,  I  will 
send  my  messenger,  and  he  shall  prepare  the  way 
before  me ;  and  the  Lord,  whom  ye  seek,  shall  sud- 
denly come  to  his  temple,  even  the  messenger  of  the 
covenant,  whom  ye  delight  in." 

This  is  a  Messianical  passage,  the  word  "  ?ncssc}i- 
ger,""  in  both  sentences,  refers  to  one  and  the  same 


88  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

person  ;  how,  then,  does  the  Evangelist  manage  to 
introduce  John  the  Baptist  into  this  verse. 

In  this  wise  :  Instead  of  interpreting  the  passage 
correctly,  which  supposes  the  Lord  of  hosts,  in  ad- 
dressing the  prophet,  to  refer  to  the  Messiah,  St.  Mat- 
thew would  make  it  appear  that  the  Lord  addressed 
Jesus  Christ  concerning  John  the  Baptist. 

To  accomplish  this,  the  Evangelist  changes  the 
person  of  the  pronoun.     In  the  original  we  read  ■':s5 
(Lepanai) ;  or,  according    to   the    Septuagint,  71^0 
Tt^oaoTtov  (lov  (before  my  face),  and  in  nowise   "  before 
thj  face,"  as  quoted  by  St.  Matthew. 

This  passage  is  also  referred  to  by  St.  Mark,  1 :  2, 
who,  in  adducing  it,  does  not  make  it  to  be  quoted 
by  Christ. 

Any  person  who  will  take  the  pains  to  compre- 
hend the  matter,  will  necessarily  allow  the  present 
passage  to  have  been  misapplied  by  the  Evangelist. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

CHRIST,    IN    PERFORMING     MIRACLES,    DESIRES    NOT     TO 
BE    KNOWN. 

In  his  exertion  to  form  a  Messiah  in  harmony  with 
his  ideal,  the  Evangelist  thinks  it  necessary  to  prop 
up  the  historical  events  he  relates  with  efficacious 
prophecies. 

The  event  narrated  in  the  present  paragraph  is, 
as  usual,  a  mere  expletive  of  a  prophetical  passage. 

We  shall  consider  the  improbability  of  the  reason 
given  for  the  performance  of  an  act,  and  the  incor- 
rectness of  applying  a  prophecy  to  it. 

The  event  related  is  as  follows  : 

V.  14.  "  Then  the  Pharisees  went  out,  and  held 
a  council  against  him,  how  they  might  destroy 
him. 

V.  15.  "  But  when  Jesus  knew  it,  he  withdrew 
himself  from  thence  :  and  great  multitudes  followed 
him,  and  he  healed  them  all ; 

V.  1(3.  "  And  charged  them  that  they  should  not 
make  him  known." 


90  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

This  command  of  secrecy  given  to  great  multi- 
tudes must  have  been  inefficient,  for  the  Pharisees 
could  well  discover  Christ's  whereabouts  by  the 
very  multitudes  that  were  supposed  not  to  make 
him  known. 

Disregarding  this  circumstance,  we  believe,  that 
the  command,  if  given,  was  to  prevent  his  being 
delivered  up  to  the  Pharisees,  who,  as  we  have  just 
seen,  had  held  a  council  to  destroy  him. 

That  Christ  had  sometimes  regard  for  his  personal 
safety  seems  to  be  shown  by  St.  Mark. 

Ch.  1  :  42-45.  Where  Christ  cured  a  leper 
and  said  to  him,  "See  thou  say  nothing  to  any 
•man." 

V.  45.  "  But  he  went  out,  and  began  to  publish 
it  much,  and  to  blaze  abroad  the  matter,  insomuch 
that  Jesus  could  no  more  openly  enter  into  the 
city." 

St.  Matthew,  however,  gives  no  such  common- 
place reason  as  this  for  Christ's  command  to  the 
multitude ;  on  the  contrary,  he  would  make  it  appear 
as  if  Christ  merely  desired  thereby  to  perform  his 
miracles  in  a  more  quiet  and  less  ostentatious  man- 
ner, or,  as  remarks  the  evangelist,  in  order. 

V.  17.  "  That  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was 
spoken  by  the  Prophet,  saying, 

V.  18.  "Behold  my  servant,  whom  I  have  chosen ; 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  91 

my  beloved  in  whom  my  soul  is  well  pleased :  I  will 
put  my  spirit  upon  him,  and  he  shall  show  judgment 
to  the  Gentiles. 

V.  19.  "He  shall  not  strive,  nor  cry;  neither 
shall  any  man  hear  his  voice  in  the  street. 

V.  20.  "  A  bruised  reed  shall  he  not  break,  and 
smoking  flax  shall  he  not  quench,  till  he  send  forth 
judgment  unto  victory. 

V.  21.  "  And  in  his  name  shall  the  Gentiles 
trust." 

Let  us  consider  in  the  first  instance  the  real 
intention  of  the  prophet,  and  then,  successively, 
the  correctness  of  the  quotation  and  the  fitness  of 
its  application. 

The  quotation  is  made  from  Isaiah,  ch.  42  :  1-4. 
The  prophet  is  here  engaged  in  an  admonitory  and 
consolatory  discourse  to  the  Jews  at  the  end  of  the 
exile. 

Isaiah  believed  himself  called  to  announce  their 
future  unto  nations.  He  is  here  evidently  referring  to 
a  person  then  existing,  and,  probably,  to  himself,  as 
shown  by  the  verbs  being  in  the  past  tense. 

The  Evangelist  translates,  "  I  will  put  my  spirit 
upon  him ;"  but  in  the  original  text  it  stands  : 

Isaiah  42  :  1.  "I  have  put  my  spirit  upon  him." 
Again, 

Is.  42  :  3.    "He  shall  bring  forth  judgment  unto 


92  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

truth,"  is  translated,  v.  20  :  "  Till  he  send  forth 
judgment  unto  victory." 

This  verse  betrays  the  idea  prevailing  in  the  time 
of  the  Evangelist,  that  Christ  would  soon  reappear 
as  the  victorious  Messiah. 

Finally,  Is.  42  :  4.  "  He  shall  not  fail  nor  be 
discouraged,  till  he  have  set  judgment  in  the  earth  ; 
and  the  isles  shall  wait  for  his  law,"  is  rendered, 
V.  21 :  "  And  in  his  name  shall  the  Gentiles  trust." 

These  few  alterations  were  desirable  to  St.  Mat- 
thew in  order  to  harmonize  his  statements  with  the 
subjective  treatment  of  prophecy 

In  conclusion  we  will  remark  that  the  English 
translation  of  the  word  Q-iiab  (Lagoim)  is  incorrect. 
It  means  "  to  nations^^''  but  the  English  translators 
of  the  Bible  have  preferred  to  render  it  "  to  the 
Gentiles,"  as  such  an  interpretation  would  make  St. 
Matthew's  quotation  appear  more  correct. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

Christ's  reason  for  speakino  in  parables.— 
ST.  Matthew's  reason. 

In  this  chapter  Christ  speaks  to  the  people  in 
parables :  in 

V.  10.  "  His  disciples  came  and  said  unto  him, 
Why  speakest  thou  in  parables."     Jesus  answered  : 

V.  13.  "  Because  they  seeing,  see  not ;  and  hear- 
ing, they  hear  not ;  neither  do  they  understand." 

Thus,  to  render  more  easy  the  comprehension  of 
his  doctrine,  Christ  exposes  it  under  the  form  of 
parables. 

This  reason,  however,  is  insufficient  for  St.  Mat- 
thew, who  thus  proceeds : 

V.  34.  "All  these  things  spake  Jesus  unto  the 
multitude  in  parables  ;  and  without  a  parable  spake 
he  not  unto  them. 

V.  35.  "  That  it  might  be  fulfilled,  which  was 
spoken  by  the  prophet,  saying,  I  will  open  my 
mouth  in  parables  ;  /  7ciH  iitter  things  ichich  have  hcen 
kejU  secret  from  the  foundation  of  the  world. ^^ 


94  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

St.  Matthew  has  quoted  this  passage  errone- 
ously, in  order  to  ascribe  to  Christ's  character  the 
veneration  attached  to  a  respected  antiquity,  and  to 
embody  his  account  with  another  prophecy. 

It  is  necessary  to  know  that  the  78th  Psalm,  from 
which  St.  Matthew  makes  his  quotation,  contains  a 
poetical  sketch  of  that  part  of  Jewish  history 
handed  down  by  their  forefathers. 

The  Psalmist  speaks  as  follows  : 

Ps.  78 :  2.  "  I  will  open  my  mouth  in  parables ; 
I  will  utter  dark  saij'mgs  of  old.'''' 

This  passage  contains  nothing  of  that  mysterious 
secret  which  had  been  kept  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world,  and  is  now  revealed  by  Christ  under  the 
form  of  parables. 

Admitting,  for  a  moment,  this  verse  to  refer  to 
Christ,  we  find  that  it  would  form  with  the  next 
following  verse  of  the  Psalmist  a  most  clamorous 
contradiction. 

Thus  by  joining  the  two  verses  in  their  logical 
connections,  according  to  St.  Matthew,  we  have,  "  I 
(Christ)  will  utter  things  which  have  been  kept 
secret  from  the  foundation  of  the  world." 

Ps.  78 :  3.  "  Which  we  have  heard  and  known, 
and  our  fathers  have  told  us." 

No  further  comment  is  necessary. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE    TRANSFIGURATION. 

The  Jews  expected  the  greatest  analogy,  if  not 
identification,  to  exist  between  Moses,  Elias,  and  the 
Messiah  ;  besides,  they  believed  that  both  Moses  and 
Elias  would  reappear  at  the  advent  of  the  Messiah. 
(Debarim  Rabba,  sec.  3,  fol.  255,  col.  2.) 

This  belief  is  also  evident  in  the  reply  of  the  dis- 
ciples to  Christ. 

St.  Mat.  16  :  14.  "  Some  say  that  thou  art  John 
the  Baptist ;  some  Elias ;  and  others  Jeremias,  or  one 
of  the  prophets." 

It  is,  therefore,  to  satisfy  this  expectation  of  the 
Jews  that  both  Moses  and  Elias  appeared  and  talked 
with  Christ  at  his  transfiguration ;  and  in  order  to 
sustain  the  expected  analogy  between  them,  the 
Evangelist  narrates  the  following  events  of  the  trans- 
figuration, as  strikingly  concurrent  with  those  which 
befell  Moses  on  Mt.  Sinai. 

As  Moses  ascended  Mt.  Sinai,  accompanied  by 
Aaron,  Nadab,  and  Abihu — Exod.  24:  9— so  Christ 


96  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

*'  taketh  Peter,  James,  and  John  his  brother,  and 
bringeth  them  into  a  high  mountain  apart." — St. 
Mat.  17  :  1. 

As  "  the  glory  of  the  Lord  abode  upon  Mt. 
Sinai,"  and  the  cloud  covered  it — Exod.  24 :  16 — 
so  "A  bright  cloud  overshadowed  Christ  and  his 
disciples."— Mat.  17  :  15. 

As  "  the  Lord  called  unto  Moses  out  of  the  midst 
of  the  cloud" — Exod.  24  :  16 — so  also  in  this  case, 
"  Behold  a  voice  out  of  the  cloud." — Mat.  17  :  5. 

As  "  the  face  of  Moses  shone  when  he  came  down 
from  the  mount" — Exod.  34  :  30 — so  "  Christ's  face 
did  shine  as  the  sun." — Mat.  17 :  3. 
■    Thus  there  exists  a  perfect  parallel  between  these 
two  events. 

Another  point  that  betrays  a  knowledge  of  the 
Old  Testament,  which  the  Evangelist  has,  with 
more  or  less  skill,  rendered  applicable  to  his  gospel, 
is  the  following  sentence,  pronounced  by  the  voice 
at  the  transfiguration : 

"  This  is  my  beloved  son,  in  whom  I  am  well 
pleased  :  hear  ye  him." — Mat.  17  :  5. 

Now  there  are  two  passages  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment containing  similar  ideas,  and  both  were  con- 
sidered Messianic. 

The  one  is  Ps.  2  :  7  :  "  The  Lord  hath  said  unto 
me,  Thou  art  my  son ;"  the  other,  Isaiah  42 :  1 : 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  97 

"  Behold  my  servant,  whom  I  uphold ;  mine  elect, 
in  whom  my  soul  delighteth." 

Considering  the  frequency  with  which  historical 
statements  have  been  constructed  from  parts  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  the  facility  of  application  in 
this  instance,  we  conclude,  that  the  present  evan- 
gelical account  can  more  properly  be  reflected  upon 
than  believed. 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

CHRIST   ENTERS     JERUSALEM     RIDING    UPON    AN    ASS. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  preceding  chapter,  Christ 
and  his  disciples  leave  Jericho,  and,  in  this  chapter, 

V.  1,  "  They  draw  nigh  unto  Jerusalem,"  which 
they  enter  on  the  same  day. 

With  this  account,  both  St.  Mark,  11  :  1,  and  St. 
Luke,  19  :  29,  agree ;  but,  according  to  St.  John, 
Christ  arrived  in  Bethany  six  days  before  the  feast 
of  the  passover.  Thus  St.  John,  12:  1,  "  Jesus,  six 
days  before  the  passover,  came  to  Bethany,"  after 
which  he  made  his  entrance  into  Jerusalem. 

Thus  the  Evangelists  disagree  in  the  time  of  this 
event,  as  well  as  in  the  following  account  of  a  mi- 
raculous indication  by  Christ. 

On  arriving  at  Bethphage,  Christ  said  unto  two 
of  his  disciples, 

V.  2.  *'  Go  into  the  village  over  against  you,  and 
straightway  ye  shall  find  an  ass  tied,  and  a  colt 
with  her ;  loose  them,  and  bring  them  unto 
me." 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  99 

Contrary  to  this,  St.  Mark,  11 :  2,  and  St.  Luke, 
19  :  30,  testify,  that  the  disciples  only  found  a  colt 
as  foretold  by  Christ.     Thus, 

"Ye  shall  find  a  colt  tied,  whereon  never  man 
sat;  loose  him,  and  bring  him." 

But  by  far  the  most  reasonable  testimony  on  this 
subject  is  that  of  St.  John,  who  informs  us,  St.  John 
12  :  14,  that  "  Jesus,  when  he  had  found  a  young 
ass,  sat  thereon,"  thus  dispensing  with  every  super- 
natural indication. 

This  miracle,  which  appears  to  have  been  per- 
formed without  a  motive,  is  thus  explained  by  the 
Evangelist. 

V.  4.  "  All  this  was  done,  that  it  might  be  ful- 
filled which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet,  saying, 

V.  5.  "Tell  ye  the  daughter  of  Zion,  Behold, 
thy  King  cometh  unto  thee,  meek,  and  sitting  upon 
an  ass,  and  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass." 

The  greater  part  of  this  quotation  is  taken  from 
Zach.  9:9.  "  Rejoice  greatly,  O  daughter  of  Zion  ; 
shout,  0  daughter  of  Jerusalem  ;  behold  thy  King 
cometh  unto  thee;  he  is  just,  and  having  salvation  ; 
lonely,  and  riding  upon  an  ass,  and  upon  a  colt,  the 
foal  of  an  ass." 

This  figurative  language  in  the  prophet,  indicates 
the  approaching  reign  of  peace  in  Jerusalem  in  the 
stead  of  war. 


100  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

It  is  placed  in  oiipositioa  to  the  next  following 
verse. 

V.  10.  "  And  I  will  cut  off  the  chariot  from 
Ephraim,  and  the  horse  from  Jerusalem." 

In  the  English  translation  of  this  passage,  two 
animals  are  designated. 

Thus,  Zach.  9  :  9,  "  Lowly,  and  riding  upon  an 
ass,  and  upon  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an  ass."  The 
prophet,  however,  had  but  one  animal  in  mind ; 
thus  the  phrase  should  read  : 

"  Upon  an  ass,  even  upon  a  colt,  the  foal  of  an 
ass."  Yet  it  is  true  that  two  animals  can  rigor- 
ously be  made  to  be  referred  to. 

Whether  we  admit  of  but  one  or  two  animals, 
the  Evangelists  still  remain  in  contradiction  ;  for  St. 
John,  who  adduces  this  passage,  makes  it  refer  to 
but  one  animal  only. 

St.  John,  ch.  12 :  15.  "  Fear  not,  daughter  of  Zion  ; 
behold,  thy  King  cometh,  sitting  on  an  ass's  colt." 

If  there  were  two  animals,  it  is  improbable  that 
Christ  rode  upon  both  of  them.  St.  Matthew  felt 
this,  and  is  at  a  loss  how  to  fulfill  this  part  of  the 
passage:  he  merely  informs  us  that  the  disciples, 
V.  7,  "  Brought  the  ass,  and  the  colt,  and  put  on 
them  their  clothes,  and  they  set  him  thereon." 

Admitting  there  were  two  animals,  this  account 
is  much  too  vague  for  comprehension. 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 
Christ's  prophecy  against  the  Pharisees. 

In  a  discourse  to  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  Christ 
addresses  them  thus,  v.  34 :  "  Wherefore,  behold  I 
send  unto  you  prophets  and  wise  men,  and  Scribes, 
and  some  of  them  ye  shall  kill  and  crucify ;  and 
some  of  them  shall  ye  scourge  in  your  synagogues, 
and  persecute  them  from  city  to  city. 

V.  35.  "  That  upon  you  may  come  all  the  righte- 
ous blood  shed  upon  the  earth,  from  the  blood  of 
righteous  Abel,  unto  the  blood  of  Zacharias,  son  of 
Barachias,  whom  ye  slew  between  the  temple  and 
the  altar." 

This  prophecy,  which  reveals  to  the  disciples  the 
cruel  death  they  had  to  expect,  was  far  from  con- 
soling; besides,  the  Pharisees  are  here,  with  one 
stroke,  made  responsible  for  all  the  righteous  blood 
shed,  from  the  time  of  Abel  down  to  the  time  of 
Zacharias. 

The  Evangelist  supposes  here,  that  Zacharias  was 
the  last  of  the  prophets  who  was  killed,  but  we  find, 


102  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

in  Jeremiah  26  :  23,  that  Uriah  was  slain  at  a  later 
period. 

Again,  St.  Matthew,  or,  if  we  admit  of  the  above 
account  as  exact,  Christ  committed  a  most  notorious 
historical  error,  by  quoting  Barachias  as  the  father 
of  Zacharias;  for,  in  II.  Chron.  24:  20,  21,  we  find, 
that  the  father  of  Zacharias  was  Jehoida. 

It  follows,  that  the  solemn  condemnation  of  the 
Pharisees  remained  undetermined,  and,  in  charity, 
we  hope,  by  this  error,  entirely  nullified. 

It  is  a  matter  of  some  surprise,  that  St.  Matthew 
should  advance  an  error  with  such  solemnity,  and 
especially  as  here  many  lives  are  made  to  depend 
upon  the  correctness  of  an  historical  detail. 

Happily,  these  errors  and  artful  productions,  which 
show  the  great  incorrectness  of  the  Evangelists,  and 
which  prove  the  necessity  of  inducing  into  our  be- 
lief a  reasonable  sentiment  of  conviction,  cannot 
affect  the  truth  of  those  inspired  principles  of  moral 
action  wherein  true  religion  consists,  and  are  of 
benefit  only  in  overthrowing  the  blind  and  bigoted 
acceptation  of  the  Evangelistical  statements. 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

CHRIST    FORETELLS    THE    DESTRUCTION    OF    THE    TEMPLE. 

V.  1.  "And  Jesus  went  out  and  departed  from 
the  temple ;  and  his  disciples  came  to  him  for  to 
show  him  the  buildings  of  the  temple." 

This  act  of  the  disciples  is  unlikely,  but  becomes 
comprehensible,  when  we  consider  that  it  offers  a 
motive  to  Christ  to  address  theni  concerning  the 
temple.     Thus : 

V.  2.  "  And  Jesus  said  unto  them,  See  ye  not  all 
these  things?  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  there  shall 
not  be  left  here  one  stone  upon  another,  that  shall 
not  be  thrown  down." 

Christ  then  continues  to  relate,  in  a  prophetical 
manner,  numerous  signs  which  would  precede  the 
destruction  of  the  temple  and  the  end  of  the  luorld. 
Among  other  things,  v.  7  :  "There  shall  be  flimines 
and  pestilences  and  earthquakes ;"  but  now  the 
Evangelist,  by  an  inadvertent  over-eagerness  to  make 
out  an  overwhelming  prophecy,  forgets  himself,  by 

making  Christ  prophecy  as  follows . 

8 


104  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

V.  14.  "And  this  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  he 
p-eached  in  all  the  world,  for  a  witness  unto  all 
nations  :  and  theri  shall  the  end  coined 

This  spoils  the  whole ;  for  surely  the  Gospel  of 
St.  Matthew  was  not  written  at  the  time  this  speech 
was  made. 

As  Christ  foretold  all  of  these  signs  in  one  and 
the  same  discourse,  while  on  the  Mount  of  Olives, 
we  conclude  that  all  of  the  signs  which  have  taken 
place,  such  as  the  destruction  of  the  temple,  hap- 
pened previously  to  the  writing  of  this  Gospel,  or, 
in  other  words,  that  past  events  are  here  related  in 
a  prophetic  manner. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

THE    CELEBRATION    OF    THE    FEAST    OF   THE    PASSOVER  ;    OR, 
THE    LAST    SUPPER. 

The  Jews  commemorated,  by  a  feast,  the  event 
of  the  slaying  of  the  first-born  in  Egypt^  when  the 
Lord  "  passed  over"  the  houses  of  the  Hebrews. 

As,  at  this  feast,  a  lamb  was  sacrificed,  so,  at  the 
holy  supper,  Christ,  or  the  "  Lamb  of  Grod,"  serves 
as  the  offering. 

It  is  to  celebrate  this  feast,  that  Christ  and  his 
disciples  go  up  to  Jerusalem. 

And  it  is  this  feast  which  Christ  is  supposed  "to 
have  converted  into  the  holy  supper ;  or,  at  least,  at 
which  the  sacrament  of  the  holy  supper  was  insti- 
tuted. 

Therefore,  we  shall  consider  the  action  and  saying 
of  Christ,  upon  which  the  belief  in  this  institution 
is  based. 

Thus,  St.  Matthew  narrates,  26  :  26,  "  And  as 
they  were  eating,  Jesus  took  bread,  and  blessed  it, 


106  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

and  brake  it,  and  gave  it  to  the  disciples,  and  said, 
Take,  eat ;  this  is  my  body. 

V.  27.  "  And  he  took  the  cup,  and  gave  thanks, 
and  gave  it  to  them,  saying.  Drink  ye  all  of  it : 

V.  2S.  "  For  this  is  my  blood  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, which  is  shed  for  many  for  the  remission  of 
sins." 

As  regards  the  expression,  "  this  is  my  body," 
TovTo  EOTt  TO  aco/ud  fiov,  the  copula  ^oTi,  which  means 
both  "is"  and  '' sigfiijies,'''  does  not  occur  in  Aramaic, 
inTia  x'nnnr'i,  the  language  of  Christ. 

That  Christ  expressed  himself  here  figuratively  is 
evident  from  the  next  following,  v.  29  :  "  But  I  say 
iinto  you  I  will  not  drink  henceforth  of  this  fruit  of 
the  vine,  until  that  day  when  I  drink  it  new  with 
you  in  my  Father's  kingdom." 

The  same  figure  is  employed  by  Christ  on  another 
occasion— thus  St.  John,  6  ;  33  :  "  For  the  bread  of 
God  is  he  which  cometh  down  from  heaven,  and  giv- 
eth  life  unto  the  world." 

Again,  v.  35,  "  I  am  that  bread  of  life  ;"  v.  5S,  "He 
that  eateth  of  this  bread  shall  live  for  ever." 

In  a  word,  on  the  present  occasion,  no  one  but  a 
cannibal  can  suppose  that  Christ  could  have  offered 
to  his  disciples  his  own  flesh  to  be  eaten,  and  his 
own  blood  to  drink. 

Concerning  the  breaking  of  bread,  and  drinking 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  107 

of  wine,  Christ  says,  Luke  22  :  19,  "  This  do  in  re- 
membrance of  me." 

Can  this  command  constitute  a  holy  institution  ? 

Should  we  bear  Christ  in  mind  while  at  table,  or 
at  the  time  of  celebrating  the  feast  of  the  passover  ? 

Of  two  things  one  :  either  this  command  was  con- 
fined to  the  disciples,  or  it  was  a  general  command 
including  all  his  followers,  in  which  last  case  no  an- 
terior consecration  of  the  bread  by  a  particular 
hierarchical  class  is  necessary. 

A  similar  institution  existed  among  almost  every 
nation  of  antiquity. 

DENIAL    OF    CHRIST    BY    PETER. 

The  Evangelist  relates  here  a  story  of  Christ  pro- 
phecying  the  treble  denial  of  Peter  before  the  crow- 
ing of  a  cock. 

As  there  are  four  Evangelists  of  equal  credibility, 
it  is  but  just  to  consider  their  several  testimonies, 
in  order  to  deduce  therefrom,  if  possible,  one  simple, 
uniform  account. 

To  begin,  St.  Matthew  testifies  that  Peter  made 
his  denial  of  Christ  to  the  several  following  persons. 

V.  69.   «  A  damsel." 

V.  71.    "Another  maid." 

V.  73.    "  Those  that  stood  by." 


108  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

St.  Luke  informs  us  that  the  persons  to  whom 
Peter  denied  his  acquaintance  with  Christ  were, 

Ch.  22  :  56.    "  A  certain  maid." 

V.  58.    "  A  man." 

V.  59.    "  Another  man." 

Thus  this  Evangelist,  through  inadvertency,  con- 
verts St.  Matthew's  and  St.  Luke's  "maid"  into  a 
"  man." 

There  is  another  slight  discrepancy  between  the 
Evangelists  in  this  matter. 

According  to  three  of  them,  Peter  makes  his  treble 
denial  before  the  cock  crows. 

St.  Mark,  on  the  contrary,  testifies  that, 

St.  Mark  14  :  30,  "  Jesus  said  unto  Peter,  before 
the  cock  crow  twice,  thou  shalt  deny  me  thrice." 
He,  therefore,  makes  his  cock  to  crow  twice,  vs.  68- 
72,  causing  a  confusion  thereby. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

THE    HISTORY    OF   JUDAS. THE     TRIAL    AND    CRUCIFIXION    OF 

CHRIST THE  INSCRIPTION,  TWO  THIEVES,  ECLIPSE,  CHRIST's 

EXCLAMATION 

The  history  of  Judas  appears  to  have  been  mod- 
eled entirely  upon  certain  passages  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament. Even  Christ  is  made  to  testify,  that  the 
idea  of  the  betrayal  was  motived  by  certain  pro- 
phetic passages. 

St.  John  13  :  IS.  "  That  the  scripture  may  be 
fulfilled,  He  that  eateth  bread  with  me,  hath  lifted 
up  his  heel  against  me." 

Effectually  David  exclaims  in  Psalm  41  :  9,  "  Yea, 
mine  own  familiar  friend,  in  whom  I  trusted,  which 
did  eat  of  my  bread,  hath  lifted  up  his  heel  against 
me."  Thus  Christ  is  made  to  apply  to  himself  a 
verse  referring  to  David,  and  that  it  may  be  made 
to  assume  a  prophetic  and  vividly  historical  char- 
acter, St.  Matthew,  cognizant  of  the  very  language 
of  this  Psalm,  makes  Christ  use  the  same  expression  ; 


110  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

thus,  St.  Mat.  26,  23,  "  He  that  dippeth  his  hand 
with  me  in  the  dish,  the  same  shall  betray  me." 

We  will  consider  now  the  account  of  the  thirty 
pieces  of  silver  as  the  price  of  Christ  and  of  the 
Akeldama. 

Judas  gives  back  the  tliirty  pieces  of  silver  which 
he  had  received  from  the  high  priest  as  the  price  of 
the  betrayal  of  Christ. 

With  this  money,  the  high  priests  purchased  the 
potter's  field,  now  called  Akeldama,  or  the  field  of 
blood. 

St.  Matthew  continues,  after  these  acts  were 
accomplished, 

-  V.  9.  "  Then  was  fulfilled  that  which  was  spoken 
by  Jeremy  the  prophet,  saying,  And  they  took  the 
thirty  pieces  of  silver,  the  price  of  him  that  was 
valued,  whom  they  of  the  children  of  Israel  did 
value  ; 

V.  10.  "  And  gave  them  for  the  potter's  field,  as 
the  Lord  appointed  me." 

The  Evangelist  here  is  mistaken.  His  first  error 
appears  to  have  proceeded  from  inadvertency ;  for 
he  thinks  to  have  extracted  the  above  passage  from 
Jeremiah,  whereas  it  is  from  Zachariah. 

In  prophecy,  exactness  is  of  primary  importance  ; 
the  prophet,  or  subject,  is  perhaps  of  more  conse- 
quence than  the  object.  Since,  therefore,  St.  Matthew 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  Ill 

was  mistaken  in  the  one,  it  is  but  just  to  conclude 
that  he  might  have  erred  in  the  other,  or  in  making 
Judas  Iscariot  the  object  of  prophecy. 

The  prophecy  adduced  isolatedly  by  St.  Matthew 
is  a  contorted  approximation  to  the  following  pas- 
sage of  the  prophet  Zachariah,  11  :  13.  "  And  the 
Lord  said  unto  me,  Cast  it  unto  the  potter ;  a  goodly 
price  til  at  I  was  prized  at  of  them. 

"And  I  took  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  and  cast 
them  to  the  potter  in  the  house  of  the  Lord." 

"  The  first  sentence  :  "And  the  Lord  saith  unto 
me.  Cast  it  unto  the  potter,"  is  omitted  by  St. 
Matthew  in  his  quotation,  as  highly  inappropriate. 

"  A  goodly  price  that  I  was  prized  at  of  them" 
is  thus  quoted,  "  the  price  of  him  that  was  val- 
ued ;"  to  this  is  added,  "  whom  they  of  the  children 
of  Israel  did  value,"  which,  although  quite  original 
with  the  Evangelist,  is,  nevertheless,  very  explana- 
tory as  determining  the  reference  of  the  passage  to 
Christ. 

The  second  sentence,  "  And  I  took  the  thirty 
pieces  of  silver  and  cast  them  to  the  potter  in  the 
house  of  the  Lord,"  is  translated,  "  And  they  took 
the  thirty  pieces  and  gave  them  for  the  potter's 
field." 

St.  Matthew  finishes  his  quotation  thus  :  "  And 
(they  that  took  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  i.  e.,  the 


112  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

high  priests)  gave  them  for  the  potter's  field,  as  the 
Lord  ajjjjomted  /we." 

The  Evangelist  should  have  said,  "  as  the  Lord 
appointed  them,''''  to  satisfy  both  logic  and  grammar; 
he  is  led  astray,  however,  by  the  desire  of  inserting,- 
cost  what  it  may,  the  first  part  of  the  original  pas- 
sage, viz.  :  "  The  Lord  saith  unto  me;"  introduced 
too  late,  it  serves  here  only  to  form  an  illogical 
phrase,  and  to  show  another  among  the  numerous 
contortions  the  original  passage  has  been  made  to 
undergo  in  order  that  it  may  appear  to  be  fitly  ap- 
plied to  the  history  of  Judas  Iscariot. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that,  in  the  Chaldean 
Bible,  the  substantive  "i^i"'  (iozer),  potter,  is  con- 
sidered as  an  orthographical  error,  as  standing  for 
"i^ix  (aozer),  treasurer,  or,  rather,  "i^i"'  t^  (ha-iozar), 
the  treasury,  which  is  apparently  the  more  passable 
word,  and  is  sanctioned  by  most  of  the  Jewish 
Rabbis. 

In  the  history  of  Judas,  there  is  one  other  point 
to  be  considered,  which  is  his  death. 

To  support  their  theory  of  Christ's  being  the  ex- 
pected Messiah  of  the  Jews,  the  Evangelists  must 
find*  as  many  prophecies  as  possible  in  their  holy 

*  The  number  of  prophecies  referring  to  Christ  has  been 
greatly  increased  since  the  Gospels  were  written.  The  English 
translators  of  -the  Bible  have  siezed  every  opportunity  to  state  it. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OP    VIEW.  113 

writings,  and  seek  for  them  especially  in  those  con- 
nected with  David,  as  the  Messiah  was  to  have 
been  David  resuscitated  (Jeremiah  30  :  9). 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  whole  story  of  Judas 
was  motived  by  a  passage  in  one  of  David's  psalms, 
when  he  laments  his  betrayal  by  an  intimate  friend. 

On  turning  to  the  history  of  David,  we  find,  in 
II.  Samuel  17  :  23,  that  "Ahithophel  went  home 
and  hanged  himself;"  so,  also,  according  to  St.  Mat- 
thew, V.  5,  "Judas  went  and  hanged  himself." 

But,  in  the  book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  his 
death  is  made  to  occur  in  a  manner  independent  of 
his  will,  thus: 

Ch.  1 :  IS.  "  Falling  headlong,  he  burst  asunder 
in  the  midst,  and  all  his  bowels  gushed  out." 

We  will  add  that, 

Matthew  19  :  28  (Judas  is  one  of  the  twelve  who 
is  to  sit  upon  a  throne  and  judge  Israel). 

THE    TRIAL    OF    CHRIST. 

The  Evangelist  has  concentrated  in  this  chapter 
all  of  those  events  referring  to  the  death  of  Christ, 

wheucver  they  conceived  a  writiug  iu  the  Old  Testaraeut  referred 
to  or  prophecied  Christ. 

Vide  Psahns  II.,  XLIV.,  XLV.,  XLYII.,  CIX.,  CX,  etc.,  etc., 
besides  coutiuual  additions  are  being  made  by  preachers  of  every 
Beet  and  creed. 


114  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

which  could  be  considered  as  fulfilling  Messianical 
passages. 

Thus  Christ,  on  his  trial,  is  said,  v.  12,  "  to  have 
answered  nothing,"  to  convert  into  an  historical 
fact  the  Messianical  passage, 

Isaiah  53 :  7.  "  He  was  oppressed  and  he  was  af- 
flicted, yet  he  opened  not  his  mouth  :  he  is  brought 
as  a  lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a  sheep  before  her 
shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  opened  not  his  mouth." 

As  at  the  feast  of  the  passover,  of  two  chosen 
rams  one  was  set  free  by  lot,  so  here  of  two  pris- 
oners, one  was  liberated. 

It  is  a  curious  coincidence,  that  the  prisoner  who 
regained  his  liberty  on  the  occasion  was  named 
Barabba  (xax^a),  or  the  son  of  the  father,  which  was 
also  a  cognomen  of  Christ. 

The  other  prisoner,  Christ,  who  was  to  replace 
the  lamb  of  the  passover,  was  necessarily  chosen  as 
the  offering.     St.  Matthew  continues, 

V.  30.  "  The  soldiers  spit  upon  him  and  smote 
him  on  the  head" — this  was  no  doubt  to  fulfill 

Isaiah  50  :  6.  -'I  gave  my  back  to  the  smiters, 
and  my  cheeks  to  them  that  plucked  off  the  hair : 
I  hid  not  my  face  from  shame  and  spitting." 

That  nothing  might  be  omitted, 

V.  34,  "They  gave  him  vinegar  to  drink,  mixed 
with  gall."     To  fulfill. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  115 

Psalm  69:  21,  "  They  gave  me  also  gall  for  my 
meat ;  and  in  my  thirst  they  gave  me  vinegar  to 
drink." 

In  this  same  Psalm,  David,  still  speaking,  exclaims, 
V.  5,  "0  God,  thou   knowest    my  foolishness: 
and  my  sins  are  not  hid  from  thee." 

This  verse,  then,  must  also  be  applied  to  the  Mes- 
siah, for  they  both  refer  to  the  same  person. 

Nor  is  it  a  vague  supposition,  that  vinegar  and 
gall  were  given  to  Christ,  merely  out  of  regard  to 
the  above  verse  of  the  Psalmist ;  for,  according  to 
St.  John,  Christ  himself  testifies  thereto — and  this 
under  the  following  peculiar  circumstances. 
Christ  is  already  crucified;  and, 
St.  John  19  :  28,  "  After  this,  Jesus  knowing  that 
all  things  were  now  accomplished,  thai  the  scripture 
might  hcfuljilled,  saith,  I  thirst. 

V.  29.  "  Now  there  was  set  a  vessel  full  of  vine- 
gar :  and  they  filled  a  sponge  with  vinegar,  and  put 
it  upon  hyssop,  and  put  it  to  his  mouth. 

V.  30.  "  When  Jesus,  therefore,  had  received  the 
vinegar,  he  said,  It  is  finished  and  he  bowed  his 
head,  and  gave  up  the  ghost." 

It  is  highly  improbable  that  Christ,  after  having 
been  three  hours  on  the  cross,  should  have  observed 
that  the  prophecy  of  the  vinegar  was  still  to  be  ful- 
filled, and  especially  so,  when  we  reflect  that  ac- 


116  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

cording  to  St.  Matthew,  27  :  34,  he  received  of  that 
drink  before  the  crucifixion. 

As  this  event,  therefore,  is  made  to  take  place  only 
to  fulfill  a  passage  of  the  Psalmist,  which  passage  in 
nowise  refers  to  Christ,  we  conclude  that  this  event, 
as  here  related,  never  occurred. 

THE    CRUCIFIXION    OF    CHRIST. 

In  the  description  of  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  we 
shall  treat  the  events  in  the  succession  followed  by 
St.  Matthew. 

The  Evangelist  commences  thus: 

V.  35.  "  And  they  crucified  him,  and  parted  his 
garments,  casting  lots ;  that  it  might  be  fulfilled 
which  was  spoken  by  the  prophet." 

Psalm  22  :  18.  "  They  parted  my  garments  among 
them,  and  upon  my  vesture  did  they  cast  lots." 

It  is  upon  this,  the  22d  Psalm,  that  most  of  the 
events  of  the  crucifixion  have  been  traced.  To  show 
the  impropriety  of  making  this  Psalm,  in  which  the 
verbs  are  in  the  past  tense,  refer  to  Jesus  Christ,  it 
is  necessary  to  know  that  David,  in  his  complaint 
and  prayer  to  God,  exclaims,  in  the  same  Psalm, 

V.  5,  "  Our  fathers  trusted  in  thee." 

And  again,  in  v.  6,  "  I  am  a  worm  and  no  man." 

These  verses,    then,    also,   necessarily    refer    to 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  117 

Christ,  as  well  as  those  which  have  been  picked  out 
as  particularly  Messianical ;  for  the  same  person  is 
referred  to  throughout  the  whole  Psalm. 

The  only  reasonable  explanation  for  forming  Mes- 
sianical events  from  passages  in  the  Psalmist  appears 
to  be,  that  the  early  tradition  expected  the  Messiah 
to  be  not  only  a  descendant  of  David,  but  David  re- 
suscitated (Jeremiah  30 :  9). 

As  it  is  necessary  that  a  prophecy  of  a  particular 
event  to  be  fulfilled  must  previously  have  been 
made,  so  this  particular  case,  in  which  the  gar- 
ments of  Christ  are  said  to  have  been  divided  by  lot 
to  fulfill  a  prophecy,  we  conclude  to  be  no  historical 
fact,  because  such  a  prophecy  was  never  made. 

St.  Matthew  continues,  in  v.  37,  "  And  (they)  set 
up. over  his  head  his  accusation  written,  This  is  Jesus 
the  King  of  the  Jews." 

Inscriptions  such  as  this  should  be  copied  exactly. 
The  Evangelists,  however,  were  more  particularly 
bent  upon  making  Christ  to  be  recognized  as  the 
Messiah  by  a  final  act. 

That  this  inscription  is  incorrect,  and  that  none 
of  them  wrote  from  a  personal  knowledge  of  the 
thing,  is  evident  from  the  fact,  that  each  one  renders 
it  differently.     Thus : 

St.  Matthew  27  :  37.  "  This  is  Jesus  the  King  of 
the  Jews." 


118  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

St.  Mark  15  :  26.  "  The  King  of  the  Jews." 
St.  Luke  23  :  38.  "  This  is  the  King  of  the  Jews." 
St.  John  19  :  19.  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  King 
of  the  Jews."* 


THE    TWO    THIEVES. 

V.  38.  "  Then  were  there  two  thieves  crucified 
with  him :  one  on  the  right  hand,  and  another  on 
the  left." 

According  to  St.  Mark, 

Ch.  15 :  28,  He  was  crucified  together  with  two 
thieves  to  fulfill  the  scripture  saying, 

.  Isaiah  53  :  12,  "  And  he  was  numbered  with  the 
transgressors." 

This  is  the  second  time  this  same  prophecy  has 
been  made  to  be  fulfilled,  but  by  the  most  dissimilar 
events;  for,  according  to  St.  Luke,  Christ  said  to 
his  disciples,  some  time  before  his  crucifixion, 

Ch.  22  :  36,  "  He  that  hath  no  sword,  let  him  sell 
his  garment,  and  buy  one. 

V.  37.  "For  I  say  unto  you,  that  this  that  is 
written  must  yet  be  accomplished  in  me.  And  he 
was  recTioned  among  the  transgressors.''^ 

*  Harmonists  imagine  three  inscriptions  to  have  been  written, 
one  in  Hebrew,  in  Greek,  and  Latin.  This  may  have  been  the 
case,  but  neither  of  the  Evangelists  mentions  it. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  119 

To  fulfill  this  prophecy  was  the  only  ostensible 
object  for  arming  his  disciples  at  that  time,  as  they 
were  not  allowed  to  use  them  in  his  defense ;  and, 
although  the  prophecy  was  thereby  fulfilled  to  the 
satisfaction  of  St.  Luke,  nevertheless,  St.  Mark  is 
here  excusable,  perhaps ;  for  the  repetition  of  the 
fulfillment  of  a  prophecy  only  serves  to  make  more 
sure. 

Concerning  the  malefactors,  the  Evangelists  do 
not  agree  so  well. 

Thus,  both  St.  Matthew  and  St.  Mark  (15  :  32) 
say  that  "  They  that  were  crucified  with  him  reviled 
him,"  while,  on  the  contrary,  St.  John  asserts,  that 
only, 

23  :  39,  "  One  of  the  malefactors  railed  on  him." 
The  other, 

V.  42,  "  Said  unto  Jesus,  Lord,  remember  me 
when  thou  comest  into  thy  kingdom." 


We  have  now  to  consider  another  event,  taken 
from  the  22d  Psalm,  as  follows : 

St.  Matthew  27 :  39.  "  And  they  that  passed  by, 
reviled  him,  wagging  their  heads,  saying, 

V.  43.  "He  trusted  in  God;  let  him  deliver  him 
now  if  he  will  have  him ;  for  he  said,  I  am  the  Son 
of  God." 


120  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

St.  Matthew  does  not  add,  that  this  was  done  that 
a  prophecy  might  be  fulfilled ;  but,  if  we  turn  to  the 
22d  Psalm  of  David,  we  find  the  two  following 
parallel  verses: 

V.  7.  "All  they  that  see  me  laugh  me  to  scorn  : 
they  shoot  out  the  lip,  they  shake  the  head,  saying, 

V.  8.  "  He  trusted  in  the  Lord  that  he  would  de- 
liver him  ;  let  him  deliver  him  seeing  he  delighteth 
in  him."  We  must  conclude,  that  this  event,  as 
related,  did  not  occur,  as  the  22d  Psalm  does  not,  as 
we  have  seen,  refer  to  Christ. 

THE    ECLIPSE. 

V.  45.  "  Now  from  the  sixth  hour  there  was  dark- 
ness over  all  the  land  until  the  ninth  hour."  We 
learn  from  the  Talmud  that  the  Rabbis  taught  that, 
among  other  causes  of  an  eclipse  of  the  sun, 
one  was,  when  at  the  death  of  a  Judge  the  last 
honors  were  left  unpaid  (Tract  Succa,  fol.  26, 
col.  1). 

The  above  event  was  related  to  fulfill  a  passage 
of  the  prophet. 

Amos  S :  9.  "And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that 
day,  saith  the  Lord  God,  that  I  will  cause  the  sun 
to  go  down  at  noon."  But  if,  according  to  St. 
Matthew  and  St.  John  19  :  14,    Christ  was  cruci- 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  121 

fied  at  the  sixth  hour,  or  at  midday,  St.  Mark  ex- 
claims with  equal  precision, 

Ch.  15  :  23.  "  And  it  was  the  third  hour  and  they 
crucified  him." 


CHRISTS     EXCLAMATION. 

V.  4G.  *'  And  about  the  ninth  hour  Jesus  cried 
with  a  loud  voice  saying  :  Eli,  Eli,  lama  sabach- 
thani  ?  that  is  to  say,  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast 
thou  forsaken  me." 

This  expression,  altogether  unworthy  of  Christ 
if  he  be  considered  as  a  free-will  offering,  becomes 
partially  comprehensible  when  we  consider  that  it 
was  used  by  Christ's  great  prototype,  David. 

Effectually  we  find,  that  that  particularly  Messia- 
nical  Psalm,  22,  commences  with  the  expression, 
"  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ? 
why  art  thou  so  far  from  helping  me,  and  from  the 
words  of  my  roaring  ?" 

Leaving  St.  Matthew's  account,  let  us  consider 
several  events  of  the  crucifixion  stated  by 

St.  John  19  :  32.  "  Then  came  the  soldiers,  and 
brake  the  legs  of  the  first,  and  of  the  other  which 
was  crucified  with  him. 

V.  33.  "  But  when  they  came  to  Jesus,  and  saw 
that  he  was  dead  already,  they  brake  not  his  legs." 


122  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

This  becomes  comprehensible,  when  we  reflect 
that  it  furnishes  the  occasion  to  complete  the  paral- 
lel between  Christ  and  the  lamb  of  the  passover. 

Christ's  bones  were  not  broken,  on  account  of  the 
prohibition  by  Moses,  concerning  the  lamb  of  the 
passover,  Exod.  12  :  46  :  "  Neither  shall  ye  break 
a  bone  tliereof." 

St.  John  continues : 

V.  34  "  One  of  the  soldiers  pierced  his  side  with 
a  spear,  and  forthwith  came  there  out  blood  and 
water." 

Which  undoubtedly  was  done  to  fulfill  Zach.  12: 
10.  "And  they  shall  look  at  me  whom  they  have 
pierced." 

The  extraordinary  circumstance  of  water  and 
blood  flowing  from  the  wound  is  explained  later  by 
St.  John,  thus  : 

Ch.  5  :  6.  "  This  is  he  that  came  by  water  and 
blood,  even  Jesus  Christ,  not  by  water  only  but  by 
water  and  blood."' 

EVENTS    WHICH    OCCURRED    AT    THE    DEATH    OF   CHRIST. 

At  the  advent  of  the  Messiah,  the  prophets  fore- 
told the  happening  of  many  miraculous  events,  some 
of  which  the  Evangelists  relate  as  having  accompa- 
nied the  death  of  Christ-;  by  far  the  more  import- 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  123 

ant,  however,  are  omitted,  it  being  impossible  to 
make  past  events  of  them  :  but  feeling  the  neces- 
sity of  adducing  these  prophecies,  the  Evangelists, 
as  well  as  St.  Paul,  imagine  another  or  second 
coming  of  Christ  as  the  Messiah,  an  event  unknown 
to  the  prophets,  and  affirm  that,  on  this  ultimate 
occasion,  the  other  great  prophecies,  here  omitted, 
will  be  fulfilled.  At  the  same  time,  however,  they 
unhappily  state,  that  this  second  coming  of  Christ 
will  occur  in  their  own  day. 

At  the  death  of  Christ,  according  to  St.  Math.  v. 
45,  "  Darkness  was  over  all  the  land." 

V.  51.  "  Behold  the  veil  of  the  temple  was  rent 
in  twain  from  the  top  to  the  bottom  :  and  the  earth 
did  quake,  and  the  rocks  rent  ; 

V.  52.  "  And  the  graves  were  opened,  and  many 
bodies  of  the  saints  which  slept,  arose, 

V.  53.  "  And  came  out  of  the  graves  after  his 
resurrection." 

The  participation  of  nature  here  certainly  pro- 
duces a  tragic  effect.  The  rending  of  the  veil  of 
the  temple  figuratively  signifies  that  not  only  the 
priest  but  every  one  might  enter  into  the  holy 
place,  which  in  the  temple  was  sheltered  by  a  veil  : 
in  other  words,  the  partiality  of  Judaism  was  abol- 
ished {vide  Hebrews  G  :  19 ;  9:6:  10:19,  20). 
In  the  stated  facts,  that  the  bodies  of  many  saints 


124  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

arose,  but  did  not  come  out  of  their  graves  until 
after  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  certainly  a  most  re- 
markable occurrence  is  presented  for  our  belief. 

But  we  shall  draw  no  conclusion  before  consider- 
ing the  other  events  which  should  have  taken  place 
at  the  same  time. 


EVENTS    WHICH    SHOULD    HAVE    OCCURRED    AT  THE  COMING  OF 
THE    MESSIAH. 

Joel  3  :  12.  "  The  heathen  shall  be  awakened." 

Joel  2  :  31.  The  sun  shall  be  turned  into  dark- 
ness and  the  moon  into  blood,  before  the  great  and 
terrible  day  of  the  Lord  come." 

Zach.  14  :  4.  And  in  that  day,  the  Mount  of 
Olives  shall  cleave  in  the  midst  thereof,  toward  the 
east  and  toward  the  west,  and  there  shall  be  a  very 
great  valley,  and  half  of  the  mountain  shall  remove 
toward  the  north,  and  half  toward  the  south." 

Besides,  • 

Zach.  14  :  12.  A  great  plague  would  consume 
away  the  eyes,  tongues,  and  flesh  of  the  enemies  of 
the  Jews." 

Joel  2  :  31 ;  3  :  15.  "  Tiie  moon  would  be  turned 
into  blood,  and  all  light  from  the  stars  cease." 

Joel  3  :  2.  "And  the  great  judgment  in  the  val- 
ley of  Jehoshaphat  would  take  place." 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  ]  2-5 

EVENTS     PIIOPHECIED     BY    ST.    MATTHEW,    AS     ACCOMPANYING 
THE    SECOND    COMING    OF    CUBIST,    AND  THE  TIME  THEKEOE. 

Ch.  24  :  29.  Immediately  after  the  tribulation  of 
those  days,  the  sun  and  moon  shall  be  darkened,  the 
stars  shall  fall  from  heaven,  and  the  powers  of  the 
heavens  shall  be  shaken." 

V.  31.  "  The  elect  shall  be  gathered  together 
from  one  end  of  heaven  to  the  other." 

Ch.  25  :  34.  "  The  righteous  shall  inherit  heaven." 

V.  41.  "  And  the  wicked  shall  be  cast  into  ever- 
lasting fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels." 

Ch.  24  :  34.  '■'■Veribj^  ^^^'1/ 101/ o  you,  This generatioii 
shall  not,  iniss  till  all  these  things  be  faljillcd :  [Vide  also 
St.  Mark  13  :  30  ;  St.  Luke  21  :  32 ;  I.  Thes.  4  :  16). 

From  these  last  three  paragraphs  we  draw  the  fol- 
lowing conclusion  : 

The  error  of  the  Evangelists  and  St.  Paul,  respect- 
ing the  second  coming  of  Christ  in  their  day,  must 
be  conceded  ;  with  this,  the  events  prophecied,  as 
accompanying  that  second  coming,  fall  to  the  ground ; 
but  these  events  are  inseparably  connected  in  the 
prophets  with  those  detailed  by  the  Evangelists  as 
having  occurred  at  the  death  of  Christ,  consequently, 
these  miraculous,  prophetical  events  could  not,  at 
that  time,  thus  partially  have  taken  place,  or  the 
prophets  were  mistaken,  and  with  them  the  Evan- 
gelists. 


CHAPTER    XXVIII. 

THE    BUlilAL,    RESURRECTION,    AND    ASCENSION    OF    CHRIST. 


THE    EMBALMMENT    OF    CHRIST. 


Of  this  event,  St.  John  and  St.  Luke  give  diflerent 
accounts. 

According  to  St.  John, 

Ch.  19  :  38.  "Joseph  of  Arimathea ;"  and, 

V.  39,  "Nicodemus  brought  a  mixture  of  myrrh 
and  aloes,  about  an  hundred  weight,"  and, 

V.  40,  "  Took  the  body  of  Jesus,  and  w^ound  it 
in  linen  clothes  with  the  spices,  as  the  manner  of  the 
Jews  is  to  bury. 

"  And  laid  it  in  a  new  sepulchre." 

But  according  to  St.  Luke, 

Ch.  23  :  50,  53.  "  Joseph  of  Arimathea  took  the 
body, 

V.  53.  "And  wrapped  it  in  linen,  and  laid  it  in 
a  sepulchre." 

V.  55.  "  And  the  women  also  beheld  how  his 
body  was  laid. 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  127 

V.  56.  And  they  returned,  and  prepared  spices 
and  ointments  ;  and  rested  the  sabbatli-day  accord- 
ing to  the  commandment. 

Ch.  24  :  1.  "  And  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
very  early  in  the  morning,  they  came  unto  the  se- 
pulchre, bringing  the  spices  which  they  had  pre- 
pared." 

The  women  saw  how  Christ  was  buried,  as  the 
manner  of  the  Jews  is  to  bury  (St.  John  19  :  40), 
and  yet,  according  to  St.  Luke,  they  prep^ired  spices 
for  a  second  embalmment. 

St.  Luke  would  hardly  have  given  so  detailed  an 
account  of  this  second  intention  to  embalm,  had  he 
known  that  Christ  was  already  buried  after  the  man- 
ner of  the  Jews,  and  wrapped  in  a  hundred  pounds 
of  aloes  and  myrrh. 

THE    GUARD    OP    THE    SEPULCHRE. 

The  Evangelist  informs  us  that  a  guard  was  placed 
to  watch  the  sepulchre. 

Mary  Magdalene  certainly  knew  nothing  of  this 
guard,  for,  turning  back  from  the  sepulchre,  and 
mistaking  Christ  for  the  gardener  (St.  John,  20:  15), 
"  She  saith  unto  him,  Sir,  if  thou  have  borne  him 
hence,  tell  me  where  thou  hast  laid  him,  and  I  will 
take  him  away." 


128  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

The  naivete  of  the  Evangelist  is,  however,  unsur- 
passed, when  he  says  that  the  chief  priest  taught 
the  soldiers  to  say  (St.  Matt.  28 :  13) :  "  That  the 
disciples  came  by  night  and  stole  him  away,  while 
we  [soldiers]  were  asleep." 

That  the  soldiers  must  represent  themselves  as 
cognizant  of  what  was  taking  place  while  they  were 
asleep,  reflects  severely  on  the  intelligence  of  the 
high  priest,  and  the  credulity  of  Pilate. 

The  Evangelist  adds, 

V.  ]  6.  "  This  saying  is  commonly  reported  among 
the  Jews  until  this  day." 

It  is  in  nowise  surprising  that  false  statements 
of  the  whole  event  were  propagated  among  the 
Jews  in  those  days  ;  for  the  Evangelists  themselves 
contain  enough  evident  proofs  of  the  contradictory 
accounts  current  in  their  day  concerning  the  resur- 
rection. 

THE    LENGTH    OF    TLME    CHRIST    WAS    IN    THE    SEPULCHRE. 

Christ  was  buried  by  night  (St.  John  19:  39); 
and  it  was  on  Friday  night  (St.  Luke  23  :  54).  "And 
THAT  day  was  the  preparation,  and  the  Sabbath 
(Saturday)  drew  on."  Christ  had  risen  before  dawn 
on  Sunday  morning  (St.  John,  20  :  1).  "  Now,  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week  (Sunday)  cometh  Mary 
Magdalene,  early,  when  it  was  yet  dark,  unto  the 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    VIEW.  129 

sepulchre,  and  seetli  the  stone  taken  away  from  the 
sepulchre."  Thus  Christ  remained  in  tiie  sepulchre 
about  thirty-six  hours — Friday  night,  Saturday,  and 
Saturday  night — for  he  had  arisen  before  morn  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  or  Sunday. 

How,  then,  can  we  accept  of  St.  Matthew's  asser- 
tion, that  Christ  said  (St.  Matt.  12  :  40) :  "  For  as 
Jonas  was  three  days  and  three  nights  in  tlie 
whale's  belly,  so  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  three  days 
and  three  nights  in  the  heart  of  the  earth" ? 


THE    FIRST    VISIT    TO    THE    SEPULCHRE. 

Concerning  those  who  saw  Christ  after  the  resur- 
rection. Archdeacon  Paley  remarks  (Part  11.  chap. 
8):  "It  was  not  one  person  but  many  who  saw 
him ;  they  saw  him  not  only  separately,  but  to- 
gether ;  not  only  by  night,  but  by  day ;  not  at  a 
distance,  but  near  ;  not  once,  but  several  times ; 
they  not  only  saw  him,  but  touched  him,  communed 
with  him,  ate  with  him,  examined  his  person  to  sat- 
isfy their  doubts." 

However  true  these  remarks  may  be,  if  we  accept 
the  testimony  of  the  Evangelists  without  comparison, 
yet,  when  we  place  them  in  parallel,  we  find  that 
their  successive  evidence,  instead  of  being  addi- 
tional, is  entirely  nullified  by  contradiction. 


130  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

The  first  persons  who  visited  the  sepulchre  were, 
according  to  St.  Matthew  28  :  1,  "  Mary  Magdalene 
and  the  other  Mary  ;"  according  to  St.  Mark  16  :  1, 
"  Mary  Magdalene  and  Mary  the  mother  of  James 
and  Salome ;"  St.  Luke  24  :  10,  "  Mary  Magdalene 
and  Joanna,  and  Mary  the  mother  of  James,  and 
other  women."  But  St.  John  20  :  1,  only  mention* 
"  Mary  Magdalene."  Thus,  whoever  among  the 
female  friends  of  Christ  attended  at  this  first  visit, 
the  presence  of  all  of  them  is  insured  by  the  gradual 
but  all-conclusive  testimony  of  the  Evangelists  col- 
lectively. 

THE    ANGELS    OF    THE    SEPULCHKE. 

Upon  arriving  at  the  sepulchre,  these  persons,  no 
matter  who  nor  how  many  there  were,  saw: 
St.  Matt.  28  :  2.  "  One  angel,  sitting  outside." 
St.  Mark  16  :  5.  "  One  young  man  inside." 
St.  Luke  24  :  4.  "Two  men  in  shining  garments." 
St.  John  20  :  12.  "  Two  angels." 

THE    FIRST    APPEARANCE    OF    CHRIST. 

According  to  St.  Matthew,  Christ  made  his  first 
appearance  to  the  two  Marys  returning  from  the  sep- 
ulchre, thus  (28  : 9)  :  "And  as  they  went  to  tell  his  cJis- 
ciples,  behold  Jesus  inet  them." 

St.  Mark  16:  19.  "Now  when  Jesus  was  risen, 


HISTORICAL    POINT    OF    A'lEW.  131 

early  the  first  day  of  the  week,  he  appeared  first  to 
Mary  Magdalene,  out  of  whom  he  had  cast  seven 
devils." 

St.  Luke  24  :  13.  "  Christ  appeared  first  to  lu-o 
women  on  the  road  to  a  village  called  Einmaus.''^ 

V.  IS.  "  The  name  of  the  one  was  Clcopas.^^ 

Upon  seeing  Christ,  the  women,  St.  Matt.  28  :  9, 
"  Came  and  held  him  by  the  feet,  and  worshiped 
him." 

According  to  St.  John,  20  :  17,  "Jesus  saith  unto 
her  (Mary  Magdalene)  touch  me  not." 

Christ's  meeting  with  his  disciples. 

According  to  St.  Matthew,  Christ  meets  his  dis- 
ciples first  in  Galilee,  thus  28  :  10,  "  Then  said 
Jesus  unto  the  women  :  Go  tell  my  brethren  that 
they  go  into  Galilee,  and  there  shall  they  see  me ; 

V.  16.  "  Then  the  eleven  disciples  went  away 
into  Galilee,  into  a  mountain  where  Jesus  had 
appointed  them. 

V.  17.  "  And  when  they  saw  him  they  wor- 
shiped him  ;  but  some  doubted." 

But  St.  Luke  says,  24  :  33,  "The  eleven  were 
gathered  together  in  Jerusalem." 

V.  36.  "  And  as  they  spake,  Jesus  himself  stood 
in  the  midst  of  them." 


132  THE    EVANGELISTS. 

THE    LAST    INTERVIEW. 

The  synoptikers  make  Christ  appear  only  once 
to  his  disciples  after  his  resurrection. 

But  according  to  St.  John  21  :  14,  "  He  appeared 
three  times." 


Christ's  last  interview  with  his  disciples  takes 
place,  St.  Matthew  28  :  IG,  "  On  a  mountain  in 
Galilee  ;"  St.  Mark  16  :  14,  "  As  they  sat  at  meat 
in  Jerusalem  ;"  St.  Luke  24  :  50,  "  In  Bethany  ;" 
St.  John  21  :  1,  "  At  the  sea  of  Tiberias." 


THE    ASCENSION, 


St.  Matthew  and  St.  John  merely  round  off 
Christ's  last  speech  and  give  no  intimation  of  an 
ascension. 

St.  Mark  relates  thus  shortly  this  event,  Ch.  16  : 
19,  "So  then  after  the  Lord  had  spoken  unto  them, 
he  was  received  up  into  heaven,  and  sat  on  the  right 
hand  of  God." 

St.  Luke's  account  is  equally  short  and  vague,  ch. 
24  :  51,  "'And  it  came  to  pass,  while  he  blessed 
them,  he  was  parted  from  them,  and  carried  up  into 
heaven." 

This  latter  account  harmonizes  with  its  biblical 


HISTORICAL    rOlNT    OF    VIEW.  133 

prototype,  II.  Kings  2:11,  "  Where  Elijah  was  sud- 
denly parted  asunder  from  Elisha,  and  went  up  by 
a  whirlwind  into  heaven." 

No  doubt  the  Evangelist  asserts  that  "  Christ  sat 
on  the  right  hand  of  God"  with  as  much  knowledge 
of  the  fact  as  he  ascended  into  heaven,  for  testimony 
worthy  of  belief  with  regard  to  such  an  event  must 
be  taken  seriously.  No  doubt  the  seat  on  the  right 
hand  was  a  seat  of  honor  among  the  Jews,  and 
there  is  no  doubt  that,  if  St.  Mark  knew  it  to  be 
true  that  Christ  sat  on  the  right  hand  of  God,  St. 
Mark  must  have  seen  God. 

With  regard  to  this,  the  conclusion  must  be  drawn 
by  individual  faith  or  enlightenment. 


